After more than two years on the run, Natalio Grueso, former director of the International Cultural Center Óscar Niemeyer, located in Avilés, Spain, was arrested in Olhão, Algarve, by the Polícia Judiciária (PJ).
The information, confirmed today by the PJ in a statement sent to newsrooms, had already been reported on December 5 by the Spanish newspaper El País.
At the time, Natalio’s lawyer, Francisco Miranda, revealed that despite his “fragile health” due to an illness, he was “calm”.
When presented to judicial authorities, the former cultural manager agreed to be handed over to the Spanish police, which was expected to happen “quickly,” within five to six days.
Back in Spain, Natalio is set to be delivered to a prison to serve the eight-year sentence he received for embezzlement and forgery.
In today’s statement, the PJ disclosed that the detained man was convicted for various crimes related to the mismanagement of the Óscar Niemeyer Center.
Inspectors of the PJ detained a man in Olhão, Algarve, who was internationally wanted for fleeing Spain after being sentenced to 8 years in prison for embezzlement and forgery. The suspect is the “central figure” in the “Niemeyer case”.
Natacha Nunes Costa | 09:19 – 11/12/2025
The inspectors indicated that the Spanish justice system proved that between 2006 and 2011, Natalio diverted funds from the institution for his own benefit, as well as that of his family and friends, using, among other methods, the issuance and use of false documents to give them a semblance of legality.
According to El País, it was the Provincial Court of Oviedo that sentenced Natalio Grueso in June 2020 to eight years in prison for repeated crimes of embezzlement, document forgery, and corporate fraud during his tenure as director of the Niemeyer Center. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in April 2023.
Grueso reportedly fled at the end of that year.
The Civil Guard began a search soon after discovering his disappearance. Months later, in February 2024, an international arrest warrant against him was issued.
The sentence that convicted him affirmed proven facts that the cultural promoter incurred in expenses unrelated to the cultural institution’s objectives during the time linked to it, “using funds for his own benefit, families, friends, and others in his social circle, as if they were his own, to the detriment of the Niemeyer Foundation”.
Besides Natalio Grueso’s conviction, the Spanish Supreme Court also maintained the two-year prison sentence imposed on the foundation’s former secretary, José Luis Rebollo, for “continuous corporate crimes”.
The penalty for the third defendant in the case, José María Vigil, a former travel agent for Viagens El Corte Inglés, was reduced from seven years and six months to six years for embezzlement, forgery, and fraud.
The sentence stated that with Vigil’s support, with whom he had a friendship, Grueso also concealed travel and accommodation expenses for relatives and associates using false or altered invoices issued in the name of foundation employees or for fictitious purposes.
Following his conviction, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PP) of Asturias opposed Natalio Grueso’s request for a pardon, finding “no reasons of justice, equity, or public interest to justify it”.
After a six-month trial in 2019, the Provincial Court acquitted the former cultural manager’s ex-wife, Judith Pereiro, and former production chief of the Niemeyer Center, Marc Martí, of charges of complicity.
Friend of Woody Allen and Kevin Spacey
El País also reports that Natalio Grueso was friends with Hollywood stars like Woody Allen and Kevin Spacey, as well as renowned writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Paulo Coelho, who wrote dedications in his books.
Natalio Oviedo was born in Oviedo in 1970. He graduated in Law but directed his professional career towards cultural management and international relations, which led him to lead various projects and institutions.
He served as Director of External Inter-regional Cooperation Projects (DG XVI) within the framework of the Ecos and Overture programs of the European Commission. He was hired by the Prince of Asturias Foundation in the early 2000s.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he met one of the great architects of the 20th century, the Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer, winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 1989, who told him that his strength lay not in words but in buildings. For this reason, he decided to donate the project of what would be his only work in Spain, the Niemeyer Center. It was in that same year that he was appointed director, a position he held until 2011.
After leaving the Niemeyer Center, Natalio Grueso reappeared in Madrid as a “major hire”, according to the Spanish publication, for the City Council led by the PP, with Ana Botella as president, to be responsible for programming municipal theaters (from the Teatro Español to Teatro Circo Price).
On June 1, 2014, he left the position, reportedly to focus on other projects and begin a new professional chapter. However, he ended up investigated, charged, convicted, and ultimately jailed.
