|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Bogota's Great Gold Artifacts Museum
| Article
# : |
14183 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1988 |
2,087 Words |
| Author
: |
Roberta MacDonald
Roberta MacDonald has written extensively on Latin American
culture. She lives in Virginia. |
Light feebly enters the darkened room, slowly reddening, then bursting into golden brilliance. The impact of being surrounded by myriad objects, hand-wrought in solid gold, is almost overwhelming. Even years later, visitors to the Gold Museum in Bogot?recall with awe the stunning effect of the vast treasure displayed. Indeed, the subtle lighting techniques employed by the Museo del Oro del Banco de la Rep?lica to highlight its extraordinary collection help make it outstanding among museums devoted to a single theme.
In 1939, Colombia's Bank of the Republic began to acquire historic indigenous work in gold in an enlightened policy designed to halt the diminution of a national heritage. The bank made its move none too early. Since the turn of the century, local and foreign collectors had been eagerly buying gold objects from entrepreneurial-minded huaqueros, whose livelihood was the robbing of ancient burial sites. Today, the Gold Museum's collection, installed in a handsome modern building, includes over twenty-seven thousand gold artifacts and is the largest collection of gold objects ever assembled.
The Golden Man
The "gold rush" for Colombian treasures first began four hundred years earlier, driven by a strange, haunting legend. Explorers were told of elaborate rites about the crowning of rulers of the Andean Muisca tribe. Covered with gold dust, the naked leader would set out upon a raft on the crater lake of Guatavita. To the accompaniment of wailing music and the shouting of his people, El Dorado, the "Golden Man," would throw vast quantities of gold and emeralds into the deep water to satisfy his demon
... (1979 of 12737 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
