Seven months after Colombia formally demanded the return of the Quimbaya treasure to Spain, its Minister of Culture, Juan David Correa, told elDiario.es that all the response they have received is “absolute silence »: “We consider that it would be interesting that a progressive government would give us an answer.” They will therefore send “in the coming days a new letter” to the department headed by Ernest Urtasun – who has demonstrated since the beginning of the year his commitment to the decolonization of Spanish art galleries – to insist on their request. The Quimbaya Collection is a jewel made up of 121 gold pieces exhibited at the Museum of America in Madrid.
“Until now we have maintained very calm, open and generous manners and forms, but the fact that we have not yet been answered borders on another type of behavior that is not fair,” the minister said. . “Faced with the total lack of response, if nothing happens, it will be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which will take the decisions in consultation with the Ministry of Culture and the President of the Republic,” he adds.
Juan David Correa assures that they do not agree to “continue processing” the request for restitution of the Quimbayas’ Treasury “without giving any answer, without even saying that they will not analyze it.” “We will not stop insisting because it is our dignity. The collection was given in a misleading manner and belongs to the towns of Quindío, Colombia,” he says.
The minister insists that given that the decolonization of museums is an issue that has been debated globally: “We need these conversations to take place. That we continue without a response is strange to say the least.” “It is a call for us to act as progressives, to talk about colonization, to maintain a horizontal dialogue between cultures and for this not to become a question of revenge, violence and anger. “There is no reason.” This newspaper attempted to contact the Spanish Ministry of Culture, but did not receive a response.
It is a call for us to act as progressives, to talk about colonization, to have a horizontal dialogue between cultures and to ensure that it does not become a question of revenge, violence and anger.
Juan David Correa
— Minister of Culture of Colombia
Juan David Correa appeared this Wednesday at the political control session of the Quimbaya Collection held within the Second Commission of the Senate of Colombia. In this document, the representative of the Green Alliance, Carolina Giraldo, “vehemently urged the State to undertake actions for the repatriation” of the pieces currently kept at the Museum of America in Madrid.
What is the Treasure of the Quimbayas?
The so-called Treasure of the Quimbayas is made up of 121 gold coins that then-Colombian President Carlos Holguín gifted to Queen María Cristina at the end of the 19th century; in gratitude for interceding in a border conflict between his country and Venezuela. The gift was not without controversy, given that Holguín offered it to Spain without authorization from the Colombian Congress.
“The collection is composed of archaeological goods (ceramics, goldsmiths, lithic and organic) associated with the Classic Quimbaya period that were looted by local huaqueros and delivered by the Colombian government to the Kingdom of Spain in 1893, ignoring their cultural value for our Nation,” they explained in the letter with which they demanded their return on October 11. They thus justified the reason why they made this request, “aware of what it implies and recognizing the effort that the Spanish authorities have made for its conservation and protection”.
Their request is also supported by a ruling issued by the Constitutional Court of Colombia in 2017, which qualifies the aforementioned donation as illegal: “The transfer of the Quimbaya collection violated clear norms of the Political Constitution of 1886 then in force. » The text contained the order to begin repatriation, which the Colombian government had not implemented until now. The existence of this conviction is one of the reasons why the Green Alliance insists that Juan David Correa take action.
Urtasun’s commitment to decolonizing museums
It was at the beginning of 2024 that the Spanish Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, announced that he would carry out a “review” of the collections of state museums to “establish spaces for dialogue and exchange which allow us to go beyond the colonial framework. Their commitment reached the ears of the Colombian government, which therefore decided to demand the return of the Quimbaya collection in May.
Meanwhile, in Spain, we had to wait until August to know the first stages of the project of decolonization of the Urtasun art galleries, which will for the moment only concern two of the collections: those of the Museum of America and the National Museum of Art. Anthropology. The administration has created two advisory groups which will prepare a technical report which, as indicated, “will serve as a basis for the development, in 2025, of the preliminary design of the new permanent exhibitions” of the two centers.
