Dehesa Maladúa is pleased to offer for sale until December 20, 2025, a unique and exclusive ham accompanied by its artistic representation, a work by the renowned realist painter Juan Manuel Pérez.
The ham and the painting will be on public display until the end of the year at the García Ortigosa Lab restaurant, Calle Ortega y Gasset 90, 28006 Madrid.
Queen Letizia attended the presentation of the ham and the painting on November 6 at the Ifema trade fair centre in Madrid.
For this unique offer, Eduardo Donato, the owner of Dehesa Maladúa has selected his finest 100% Iberian acorn-fed ham from the Manchado de Jabugo breed, which is organically produced and carries the Jabugo Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) seal. From the 2020 vintage year and aged for three seasons, this unique ham was naturally cured for 70 months in a traditional drying facility in Cumbres Mayores, Huelva.
In a one-off collaboration, Antonio López’s friend and disciple, Juan Manuel Pérez, known as “the painter of meat”, dedicated several months to painting the ham chosen by Eduardo Donato, which served as the model for his artwork.
The performance called “Now this is a ham”, which was presented to Queen Letizia, is intended as a nod to the Surrealist art movement that emerged in the 1920s—a century ago—with works such as those by Belgian painter René Magritte, creator of the depiction of a pipe accompanied by the text “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”) and later, the Conceptual Art movement which emerged in the 1960s. With his transgressive act, the Belgian artist wanted to demonstrate that all pictorial representations, even photographic ones, should not be confused with reality.
In November 2024, a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold by Sotheby’s auction house for $6.2 million.
Those interested in acquiring this exceptional Iberian ham and receiving the free original painting depicting its life-size artistic representation can send an email to the following address:
info@dehesamaladua.bio
Eduardo Donato
Driven by environmental convictions and the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, Donato left a successful career as a construction entrepreneur in his native Tarragona to settle in the Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche Natural Park in Huelva, where in 1989, he purchased the estate that would become the company Jamones Ecológicos de Jabugo, S.L.U., better known by the brand, Dehesa Maladúa.
This pioneering family business is dedicated to organic farming, within the Jabugo Protected Designation of Origin, of 100% acorn-fed Iberian pigs of the endangered Jabugo Spotted variety.
Biofach-Nuremberg, the world’s largest organic trade fair, awarded Dehesa Maladúa ham the prize for best organic product in 2016, marking it the first time a Spanish organic producer had received this recognition.
Juan Manuel Pérez
Self-taught and with an early career, Pérez held his first group exhibition at the age of 18. He began participating in painting competitions in 1982, earning accolades such as the Medal of Honor at the 26th BMW Painting Prize.
Since 1994, he has collaborated with the magazine “Eurocarne” to create paintings for the monthly publication. He has published over 50 covers and a wide selection of his work as prints, earning him the nickname “the painter of meat.” For the first Meat Attraction trade fair (2017), he participated with several works in the exhibition The Colours of Meat.
A friend of the sculptor Julio López and the painter Antonio López, he held his last solo exhibition in 2023 in his native Soria.
