The Treasure consisted of more than 100 pieces, including poporos, female and male naked figures, chairs, and both ceremonial and ornamental objects.

After a dispersion of the Treasure, spread in several private collections, in 1892 the national government achieved a new unification, thanks to the utilization of public resources when Carlos Holguin -President of the country at that time- bought a complete selection of its best pieces.

After being sent to Spain with the purpose of exhibing it during the commemoration of the discovery of America, the Treasure was given to the Regent Queen Maria Cristina of Habsburg as a present, in order to show the country’s gratitude because of her collaboration in the resolution of a bordering conflict with Venezuela, and as a way of restoring the diplomatic relations with Spain.

Today, more than 100 hundred years since then, and as a representation of a national feeling, the Quindio’s History Academy dreams about bringing back to its original place this invaluable pre-Columbian heritage, with the aim of ensuring the distinction and significance that it deserves and to make it accessible for Colombian people, heirs in their own right of the Quimbaya legacy.

This is not the first time that a country tries successfully to defend the restitution of its historical patrimony: France returned the traces of the General San Martin’s sable to Argentina and the Inca Mummy Vaimaca to Peru, while the Getty Museum of New York brought back the Cerventeri’s Klix to Italy.

Noemí Sanin Posada, current Colombian Ambassador to Spain, and Carolina Barco, Foreign Affairs Minister, have been notified about this initiative, a purpose that –in the end- and to accomplish with the desired effectiveness, requires a determined support from the national government (led by the President of the Republic) and from international organizations like UNESCO.

This site is intended to gather the largest possible group of collaborators around the Treasure of the Quimbayas Repatriation Project and to let the international community know about the objectives and step forwards on this matter