Spain's gold went to Moscow in 1936; when Negrín died, his son gave Franco the receipts, and Moscow said the money was all gone

In September 1936 Juan Negrín became Finance Minister of the Spanish Republic. He ordered much of the Bank of Spain's gold sent to the Soviet Union. Four ships left Cartagena on 25 October 1936 and reached Odessa on 2 November. The Soviets counted 7,800 boxes, about 510 tonnes. A reception act signed on 5 February 1937 gave ownership to the Republic's government, not the Bank of Spain. The Soviet agent Alexander Orlov later said Stalin joked that the Spaniards would never see their gold again, "just as they don't see their ears." Negrín signed 19 sale orders between February 1937 and April 1938. The Republic got about $469.8 million, most of it paid out through a Soviet bank in Paris. Negrín died in Paris on 12 November 1956. His son Rómulo then gave the "Negrín dossier", including the Soviet receipts, to Franco's government. The lawyer Mariano Ansó said Negrín had wanted Spain's interests protected against the USSR. In April 1957 Radio Moscow answered that the Republicans had spent it: "The money was soon all gone." The rest of Negrín's papers stayed in the basement of his Paris flat for about 75 years. His son Juan Jr. refused to release them. After Juan Jr. died, his daughter Carmen Negrín moved them to Las Palmas, where they opened to researchers in 2013. The gold was never returned.