2023-04-27 18:08:04
Ene of the great myths of human history has finally become reality. At least that’s what we thought as we walked through the Museo del Oro, the gold museum in the center of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. Displayed in its showcases is a tiny, yet very handsome, portion of the gold that the various pre-Columbian cultures in the Andean highlands had collected and elaborately worked on before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. The most important collection of golden artefacts in the Americas presents thousands of exquisite jewellery, cult objects and offerings: rings, pins and necklaces, crowns and tiaras, ritual masks with puma and jaguar faces, small birds and tiny insects, human figures, fantasy figures and geometric ones ornaments. Everything was designed by the indigenous goldsmiths with artistic sensitivity and perfect form down to the smallest detail, the simple beauty often complemented by mystical symbolism.
custodians of cultural heritage
It borders on a miracle that so many exquisite objects survived the raids of the Spaniards and the melting down into coins and bars. However, because the indigenous cultures of modern-day Colombia were not as tightly organized as the Inca Empire in the central Andes, gold ownership was not predominantly concentrated among the powerful and the religious caste, but was widespread among the populace. Looting was therefore not as easy for the Spaniards as it was in Peru, where they took over the central holdings and had more gold delivered to them in place of the Inca ruler. The elaborate goldsmith works in the Colombian Andean valleys, on the other hand, were mostly used as grave goods, so they were distributed in small quantities all over the country. Conquistadors and later grave robbers swept away most of it, but much has survived over time and a significant part of it can now be admired in the Gold Museum. Its holdings come largely from purchases by the Colombian state bank, which acquired illegally acquired finds on the open market before they disappeared down shady channels and abroad. The Museo del Oro not only has an exquisite gold collection, but also sees itself as the guardian of Colombia’s cultural heritage.
#search #myth #Eldorado #Colombia