The Adventure of the Treasure of the Quimbayas
by Jaime Lopera
Based on a book by Pablo Gamboa Hinestroza
(Translated by: Andres Felipe Garcia Ospina)

The famous Treasure of the Quimbayas has been for more than 100 years in the Museum of America, in Madrid. The Treasure went out from our country to be showed at the exhibitions for the 4th Centenary of The Discovery of America. This cultural patrimony was given on May 4th, 1893 by the diplomatic office in Madrid to Regent Queen, with an official letter signed by the Foreign Relations Minister, Marco Fidel Suarez, who became President of the Republic a few years later.

The treasure, made up of about 200 prehispanic goldsmithing pieces, was found during the archaeological sacking executed by the Quindio’s plunderers in 1890, at an excavation called La Soledad, located for some people in the municipality of Quimbaya, and for some other near Filandia. In 1892 the republican government acquired a single lot with all the diverse private collections of gold and ceramic dispersed in different places, property of dealers and collectors.

Carlos Holguin, President in charge of Colombia (1886-1892) bought the best lot of pieces from Quindio with public funds in order to exhibit them in Madrid during the commemoration of the Centenary. Then, by means of a communication of his mandate, he gave the treasure to the Spanish Government, specifically to the king’s Alfonso XII wife, the Regent Queen Maria Cristina, “as a testimony of thankfulness” for her help in a bordering clash with our Venezuelan neighbors. Since then, this valuable lot took the name of “Treasure of the Quimbayas” as an evidence of the splendor of the native cultures in America.

The treasure also has a symbolic meaning: in 1886 Colombia became the last nation in reinstating its diplomatic relations with Spain, after the Independence war. There was a feeling of the necessity of a fraternal approach with the Spanish Crown and it seemed that the gesture of giving the treasure by the President Holguín -as a way of liberality- could consolidate those friendships.

The Regent Maria Cristina of Habsburg (who have had a very familiar relationship with Holguin, when he served as the first Colombian Ambassador in the Peninsula) was helping at that time as a mediator in a bordering conflict with Venezuela, wined by our country, thanks to her. These coincidences (the diplomatic approach plus the arbitration and the personal friendship of Holguin) were the cause of the gift from Colombia to Spain, which repatriation is claimed nowadays.

Gamboa Hinestrosa, Pablo. El Tesoro de los Quimbayas. Bogotá: Editorial Planeta, 2002.