SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

As of today, the Spanish state-owned news agency AGENCIA EFE will share with Google’s users one hundred photographs belonging to its graphical file after joining the Google Cultural Institute project, a platform made up by more than one thousand cultural institutions which have opened their collections to internet.

Five years after the creation of the Google Cultural Institute, which was started with an agreement among 17 museums which made possible to download in internet hundreds of works of art so that everybody might enjoy them, the news agency AGENCIA EFE has joined up this project, adding three collections of photographs about sport, the Spanish civil war, and the painter Salvador Dalí.

One hundred photographs which are part of the 18 Million images which make up EFE’s graphical file and which, as pointed out today Google Spain’s senior analyst for Public Policies, Mr. Antonio Vargas, constitute “an example”, as it shares its contents with users, and which from now on will be on display for everybody on this platform’s “showcase”.

EFE, witness of History

'With more than 75 years since its incorporation, there are few media which have been such outstanding witnesses as EFE of Spain’s evolution through its history”, pointed out Mr. Vargas, who declared that he hoped that these three exhibitions will constitute “the beginning of a large library” which will continue this collaboration with Google and “ends up consolidating Efe as one of the main historical storage centers in the world and as a privileged observer of Spain’s History”.

That is why the representative of Google Spain hailed as a “landmark” the collaboration between both companies for helping each other in carrying out the task of “democratizing the access to information and culture from any place in the world”.

It is not by chance that both EFE and Google have been awarded the Príncipe de Asturias Prize for Communication and Humanities, a prize which constitutes a reminder, in the words of Mr. Vargas, the responsibility which both companies have in the preservation and promotion of the cultural and creative heritage.

The territorial director and Chief of Staff in EFE, Mr. José Antonio Pérez, pointed out that this collaboration makes accessible the photographic file of the news agency and offers to the public “the country’s living image” as well as that of its people.

'Heroes of Spanish Sport' series

Among the images which join up today this project are the those which make up the series “Heroes of Spanish Sport”, a collection of photographs about sportspeople such as the tennis player Mr. Rafael Nadal, of the swimmers Ms. Mireia Belmonte, Ms. Ona Carbonell and Ms. Melani Costa, of the canoeist Mr. David Cal, of the triathlon athlete Mr. Javier Gómez-Noya, or of the athlete Ms. Ruth Beitia, of the basket player Mr. Pau Gasol, or of the Formula Uno pilot Mr. Fernando Alonso.

The collection reflects the landmarks of Spanish sport, but there are also images of artists expressly posing for Efe, such as those of the rhythmic gymnastics team at the Palacio de Cristal in El Retiro park in Madrid; of Ms. Ona Carbonell at the Neptuno fountain in Madrid, of the taekwondo athlete Mr. Nico García Hemme at the Palacio de Cibeles, of the weightlifter Ms. Lidia Valentín at the Teatro Real, or of the soccer player Mr. Juan Francisco Torres, who attended today this project’s presentation.

Images about the Spanish Civil War

'Madrid at war. Images of the Spanish Civil War” is another of the photograph collections from Efe’s file which will be accessible as of today in Google.

Although there are images about the war among the 54 photographs which make up the selection, this highlights everyday life in Madrid and of its inhabitants during the war, and constitutes a small sample of the more than 15,000 photographs owned by Efe from this period.

The least known part about Dalí, the last period in the artist’s life after his return to Spain is reflected by the set of 39 photographs selected by Efe for their display at the Google Cultural Institute, a platform with more than 41 Million users all over the world and with 240 Million pages visited.

Besides EFE, the first news agency in Spanish language and the fourth in the world, a further 99 museums and institutions have joined up the Google Cultural Institute, with more than 200 interactive stories and 10,000 new items, among which stand out 17 Gigapixel images (very-high resolution images) and 50 Street View-type collections which allow to make virtual walks of the museums’ collections.

One of these one hundred new partners is also from Spain, the contemporary art cooperative gallery Subagora.

EFE and Grupo SEPI

AGENCIA EFE belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a final workforce of around 73,000 professionals in 2014; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in a further ten companies, and indirect shareholdings in more than one hundred companies.