Starting November 1st 2002, the Prado Museum will be opening on Sunday afternoons. During the whole Sunday the entrance will be free.

Unfortunately, it won't be free on Saturday afternoons (after 14:30) as it used to be.

There was a recent NY Times article about the expansion of the Prado now underway - any feedback as to the process and the end result? It seems that the size will be at least 1/3 larger than now.

Unfortunately, I think they keep on working to expand it destroying part of the Jeronimos' Church and taking the Army Museum to Toledo.

The Prado museum has a collection of over 8000 paintings that can't be exhibited because the lack of room. However, destroying a wonderful piece of architecture (as the claustro de los Jerónimos is) just to show a few dozens of them...

Does the Prado have a reservation service for groups? I know the Louvre in Paris does this for students but I have not been able to find anything on the Prado.

Gloria,
If I'm not mistaken all the art museums in Madrid offer this service; try going through the official Spain and/or Madrid website.