The Quimabayas Treasure is a historical jewel, a display of artisanal virtuosity and also, increasingly, a focus of diplomatic tensions between Spain and Colombia. At the epicenter of the dispute is a collection of 122 archaeological pieces made by the Quimbayas that in 1893 the then Colombian president gave to the queen of Spain in circumstances that have led to more than a century later, well into the 21st century, Bogotá has made a move to demand its return from Madrid. In May, the Government of Gustavo Petro already did so with a letter. And now, in the face of Moncloa’s silence, he plans to send a new letter.
His goal: to make it clear that he will not let the matter die.
A look at the 4th century. The so-called “Quimbaya treasure” has become a hot potato in relations between the Governments of Gustavo Petro and Pedro Sánchez, but in reality its history is much older. The 122 pieces that make up it were made between the 4th and 7th centuries and are a demonstration of the craftsmanship of the Quimbaya people, who were located in the Colombian Bajo Cauca. For the Ministry of Culture of Spain, they make up an “exceptional sample of pre-Columbian culture.” Hence they are preserved as a prominent attraction in the Museum of America.
A busy 19th century. The pieces currently in dispute remained forgotten for centuries until in 1890 a group of guaqueros located them in two pre-Columbian tombs in Filandia, in the department of Quindío. The original treasure was much larger than the one that is kept in Madrid today and included, in addition to metalwork, ceramics, stones and fabrics, the BBC recalls.
In 1891 the Colombian Government managed to obtain the collection of 433 objects, but did not retain it for long. Shortly after, at least part of the pieces crossed the Atlantic to be included in an exhibition organized in Madrid to commemorate the fourth centenary of the arrival of the Spanish to America.
In 1893, the then president of the country, Carlos Holguín, decided to go one step further and gave the queen regent María Cristina of Habsburg-Lorraine the pieces that Colombia now wants to recover.
“The most complete and valuable”. It was not just another donation. Nor did it come in a normal context. In Holguín’s words, the collection was “the most complete and valuable” sample “of the industry of the aborigines of Colombia.”
With it, his Government wanted to thank Spain for its arbitration in a border dispute between Colombia and Venezuela that was resolved in favor of the former. Holguín’s words were certainly not misguided. Today known as the “Treasure of the Quimbayas” stands out for its gold and tumbaga items, an alloy that combines the precious metal with copper.
And what kind of treasure is it? “It is made up of a typology of objects related to the consumption of hallucinogens and the adornment of the bodies of the chiefs,” the Ministry of Culture recalls. The most popular pieces, however, are those that represent six chiefs adorned with jewels, four men and two women, one of them pregnant. The treasure rested in the National Archaeological Museum until 1941, when the Museum of America was created. It took a little longer to reach its current location. It didn’t happen until the ’60s.
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A letter to Madrid. That 131 years have passed since the donation of Holguín does not mean that the situation of the Quimbaya treasure has left the Colombian political agenda. In 2017, its Constitutional Court agreed to demand its return to Spain and ordered the Executive, then headed by Juan Manuel Santos, to take the necessary steps to recover the 122 pieces. Neither Santos nor Iván Duque wanted to open the melon of the old treasure, but Gustavo Petro’s team has decided to resume the lawsuit.
Their most mediatic move came last May, when the Colombian Minister of Culture, Juan David Correa, and Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, signed a letter addressed to their Spanish counterparts in which they argued the need for the pieces to return to Colombia.
Hence the country requested them officially. He did so by raising the 2017 order, but also issues such as the “decolonization of museums”, “cultural sovereignty” or “the recognition of the rights of peoples”.
When silence is not worth it. The case could have ended there, in a formal petition, a few headlines and a fleeting debate that fades away as the months go by. In fact, despite the fact that the Spanish Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, has advocated in the past for reviewing the museum network to “overcome the colonial framework”, everything indicates that this was the strategy proposed by the Spanish Executive.
At least that’s how Colombia seems to interpret it, which has decided to knock on the door of Moncloa again. As? With a second letter, as I advanced a few days ago Clarion.
“It is important to insist”. Bogotá has decided to make a move precisely because of “the lack of response to the letter sent on May 9” and makes it clear that it will not accept silence as a response. “It is important to insist that they answer us. We want a conversation and explain, not only to the Spanish Government, but to Spanish citizens, why we are demanding this,” says the Minister of Cultures, Juan David Correa, in a statement collected by the diary. And he adds: “We are not going to stop insisting, we are not going to stop telling Spain that we need a more horizontal conversation.”
The focus of the controversy. The controversy not only revolves around what was donated in 1893, but, above all, how it was donated. Government sources consulted by The Country They allege that the treasure rests in Spain due to a donation, not the result of looting, and therefore the State is its owner with all of the law.
What’s more, they remember that the 122 pieces belong to the national heritage, so it is not in the hands of the Minister of Culture to decide what is done with it. In Bogotá they emphasize another key issue: the conditions under which the donation was made in 1893.
The treasure arrived in Spain in 1892 to join an exhibition and only a few months later it was Holguín who decided to give it to the Spanish Crown. In Colombia they argue that this donation did not respect the law nor did it have the support of the people. “It is a spurious gift that a president made at the end of the 19th century without consultation and abuse; this collection had left the country for an exhibition, not with the purpose of being donated,” reasons the current Minister of Culture. “This abuse of power persists.”
“With your back to the country”. That has been the main argument put forward by the Colombian Executive to reinforce its position, a reasoning that they have emphasized over the last few months.
“This gift in quotes was given under absolutely anomalous, secret conditions, with his back turned to the country, to the constitution of 1886, in an obtuse, quite unclear and illegitimate manner,” Correa insists in statements collected by the BBC and before underlining that “the return would mean something symbolically very important, an act of historical reparation.”
The Country He slips that Madrid does not want to enter into the confrontation and his idea would be to reach a friendly agreement, one that would allow, for example, the treasure to return for a temporary exhibition.
Image | Ángel M. Felicísimo (Flickr) and Ministry of Culture-Museum of America
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