The Gold Museum of Colombia

I met Stacey Whale, the jeweller attached to the Green Gold exhibition, in Bogotá and together we visited the Museo del Oro, or Gold Museum, one of the most important collections of pre-Hispanic metallurgy in the world. The collection began when the Banco de la República acquired a Quimbaya lime container or poporo, made of gold. Today the collection comprises of 50,000 objects made of metal, ceramic, stone, wood and textiles, of which 35,000 are pieces of pre-Colombian gold work, most of which are found at the Museo del Oro.



Detail of the painting by Francis Martin featuring the Quimbaya lime container or Poporo.

On display is the work of the pre-Colombian indigenous groups that have been identified in Colombian territory, and how they found and worked gold. Each culture had distinctive characteristics which set them apart, and this is presented within a geographical and historical framework. The centrepiece of the museum is the Salon Dorado, a dazzling display of 8000 pieces inside an inner vault.

www.banrep.gov.co/museo/eng/home.htm

Cartagena - Museo del Oro Zenú

Cartagena de Indias on the Caribbean coast was my first destination. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Cartagena's walled city is an architectural delight, bathed in colour and light. Founded by Pedro de Heredia in 1533, the city served as Colonial Spain's storage point for treasure, which was collected from the Americas before being shipped to Spain.

First stop was the Museo del Oro Zenú, the Cartagena branch of the Gold Museum in Bogotá. Specialising in gold artifacts from the Caribbean coast of Colombia and the coastal plains, the well-displayed pieces are primarily from the Zenú people and are all between 500 to 2000 years old.


Detail of painting by Francis Martin featuring Filigree earring, Zenú tradition. 200 B.C.-1600 A.D.

Fabrics and the weave played an essential role in the daily and religious life of the Zenúes, the weaving and basketwork industries influencing pottery and metalwork styles. Metalsmiths used the cast filigree technique to make earrings, by weaving or imitating fabrics and plaits in wax threads, which they transformed into metal. They lived amidst a maze of streams, rivers and marshes, and wove together a waterway system made up of an intricate network of canals.