MADRID, SPAIN.- The Minister of Culture, César Antonio Molina, Thursday chaired the specially-convened meeting of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Museo del Prado. At the meeting the businessman and art patron Plácido Arango was appointed President of the Board of Trustees of the Museo del Prado.

Plácido Arango is a leading member of the business community in Spain and Mexico and is well known for his connections with the art world. He has been a Board Member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1991 and possesses one of the world's most important art collections, including works by artists such as Goya, El Greco, Ribera, Sorrolla, Henry Moore, Chillida and Tapiès. In addition to his collecting activities, Plácido Arango is also known for his patronage of the arts. Among his numerous donations was the gift of the first edition of Goya's Caprichos to the Museo del Prado in 1992.

Plácido Arango (born Tampico, Mexico, 1931) graduated in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in 1966 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2006. As a businessman, he is a founding partner of Grupo Cifra in Mexico and founder of Grupo Sigla in Spain.

Plácido Arango has been President of the Fundación Príncipe de Asturias (1987-1996), a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Museo del Prado (1980-1993) and a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía (1988-1991). He is also a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Biblioteca Nacional and of the Fundación Federico García Lorca, a founding member of the Executive Committee of the Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción, an associate Member for Mexico of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Member of the Board of Trustees of Tufos University, Boston.

An Honorary Citizen of the Principality of Asturias, Plácido Arango has received numerous honours and awards, including the Gran Cruz of Isabel La Católica, the Gran Cruz for Civil Merit, the Gold Medal for Fine Arts, the Juan Lladó Art Patronage Prize, the Gold Medal of the Spanish Institute of New York, and the Círculo Ecuestre Prize in Barcelona.