Ramón, a fine art photographer, purchases an anonymous 19th-century portrait in Barcelona. He and the singular experts advising him believe that it is none other than a “Goya in the shadows.”

Is it real or false? Is it a farce? Is it a fiction? Do these characters really exist? What are we talking about? A painting? The art market? Goya? Or about Spain? The acquisition of the portrait is the starting point of a journey d’auteur—an approach unique to this particular piece and a contemporary look into the art world, Goya’s universe, and the extraordinary legends that surround him. Mauas draws a suggestive and very personal vision of the great Goya…Investors, handwriting experts, art restorers, auction houses, Spanish State Police Brigade for Historic Heritage and scholars all around the world brings us their own opinion in a story that reminds us to an investigations of Sherlock Holmes and the extraordinary legends that surround him.

"Mauas traces a journey that goes from the legend to the social phenomenon, proposing a reflection on art as a business, with the schemes between innocent buyers and those who take over the art market, but he also includes a look into the identity of the artist and the authorship of his canvases. " — Fotogramas

"Is it real or false? Is it a farce? Is it a fiction? Do these characters really exist? What are we talking about? A painting? The art market? Goya? Or about Spain?', asks David. And indeed, he talks about all this and much more." —  El Mundo

"The author draws a suggestive and very personal vision of the great Goya...The images come and go to the beat of a rhythm labyrinthine which reminds me of The Aspern Papers or the investigations of Sherlock Holmes." — El Heraldo de Aragón

Prado Museum, Madrid
Goya Foundation in Aragón, Zaragoza
Babylon Mitte, Berlin
Tel Aviv Cinemateque
Aquitaine Museum, Bordeaux