Guernica by Pablo Picasso, 1937. (Wikimedia Commons)

After a 30-year ban, visitors to Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum can now take photos of Pablo Picasso's anti-war painting Guernica (1937). The new director, Manuel Segade, lifted the restrictions on images of the epic painting, which depicts the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, The Art Newspaper reported.

The Spanish government acquired Guernica from Picasso in 1937, but when World War II broke out, the artist decided to keep it at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for safekeeping.

The painting was returned to Spain in 1981 and was displayed at the Prado Museum until 1992 when it was moved to the Reina Sofía Museum. A museum spokesperson confirmed that a photo ban has been in place at the Reina Sofia Museum ever since.

"The photo restrictions in the Guernica room have been lifted since 1 September. Visitors are now allowed to take pictures but without flash or any stabilization elements such as tripods or selfie sticks," the museum spokesperson told the Art Newspaper.

According to The Times, museum officials hoped that the ban on photography would help people spend more time viewing the painting. A museum spokesperson said that taking a selfie only takes a few seconds and that this can disrupt the flow of visitors.

Use of cameras in museums a controversial issue

The newly appointed museum director, Manuel Segade, told Yahoo, "I would like us to reach 100% photographic accessibility, especially for a young audience who live filtered by a screen. I think it is also important to pay attention to their way of approaching reality."

The use of cameras by visitors in museums has been a controversial issue for many years. Art critic Jonathan Jones has criticized the use of cameras at the Louvre Museum, pointing out the large number of visitors who take pictures of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

"Yet in front of the Mona Lisa, one camera flash after another blasts its ugly reflection on the glass protecting the painting. I just don't understand how the Louvre can allow this destructive camera abuse," he wrote in 2009.

Picasso's masterpiece Guernica was in the news last June when Mick Jagger, the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, had a private viewing of the painting while the museum was closed.

The photo ban was still in place at the time, but an exception was made for Jagger, which sparked outrage on social media.