What is the Quimbaya treasure, the valuable collection of pre-Columbian pieces that Spain refuses to return to Colombia

In recent hours it became known, through a letter, that the Spanish government will not return the Quimbaya treasure. Considered as an asset of cultural interest, the pieces will remain in the custody of the Museo de América in Madrid. However, what is the treasure of Quimbaya? Why are you in Spain? In this article we talk to you about the importance of this and the reasons why Colombia, for years, has been waiting to recover them.

This is a compilation of items consisting of 11 necklace beads, six helmets, nine necklace pins, a crown, eight pins, three containers, five bells, 17 poporos, eight pendants, two musical instruments, 21 noses and 31 earmuffs. These pre-Columbian objects were ceded in 1893 to the Spanish queen Maria Cristina, on the initiative of Colombian President Carlos Holguín Mallarino. The gift, at that time, was given as a thank you for the role played by the Spanish crown in the arbitral award on the borders between Colombia and Venezuela.

“The treasure was sent because it was nearby, in an antique shop that was left by the Palacio de Nariño. Quindío pieces arrived and bought them for $50,000 of the time and, that's what they sent (...) it turned out to be one of the most important collections of the exhibition at the Museum of America in Madrid,” said Jaime Lopera, spokesman for the Academy of History of Quindío, in an interview with Blu Radio.

In 2017, the Constitutional Court's decision on the obligation to return the treasury to Colombia was held. In those days, in testimonies collected by Caracol Radio, that order was described as a great achievement. “This is a battle that we have been winning step by step, we hope to see how the government will face the decision to bring the Quimbaya treasure back to Colombia (...) This is the proof that justice does listen to citizens. We qualify this as the battle that the ant won against the elephant,” Lopera said.

The expert explained that although the Colombian Government has in its hands all the resources to recover the pieces, it has not done so to avoid damaging its priorities with the European country. “Some pieces are on display and others have hidden them. Because they consider (the Spaniards) that they are their own, because what is given is not taken away”, he argued.

The document, signed by Óscar López Águeda, of the presidency of the Spanish government, regarding the decision not to return the pieces, reads: “I inform you that Spain continues to offer technical cooperation on the Quimbaya Collection, which has been cut short by the COVID-19 crisis. We know that the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History and the Museum of America in Madrid are already working with coherent proposals and exhibitions. This cooperation does not prevent it from being appropriate to recall the good faith shown by Spain in the possession and preservation of the collection, as well as the belonging of the collection to the collections of the Museum of America and its status as an Asset of Cultural Interest, which prevents it from being alienated or exported.”

The answer, although negative, does not discourage applicants in its entirety, on the contrary, it leads to new measures being taken to try to recover the pieces. “That they return all 122 pieces to us in gold replica, some replicas that we can exhibit here,” Jaime Lopera proposed although, in his testimonies, he himself accepts that this is unlikely to happen. “In short, it says that the Quimbaya collection is neither exported nor alienated. So with that it simply and simply slams the door to the claims of the Colombians,” he added.

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