Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

s in one I - -ki ng lhe of work n 1he 1uola, ar– a1.in !! n the I for pn. con– :rccd , ed. has this Mu– now ob– n is ncd . the . the hich cr to 'lion t! ll it 1rom ,red ,:ign INTERIOR of • lomb • I Tl • rr • denlro In Cauca, the mounl • lnou, • r •• lr • v • rnd by lh • P • -z and Ulluco rlv • r1, Th • tomb, • r • coll • cllv • , containing many l • rg • fun • r • ry urn,. Th • w • ll1 • r • decorated with g • om • lrlc • I molll1 In red • nd black on a while background. hand all around the world. Colombia was never part of the great American Indian cmrircs - the Az1ecs to the north and the Incas to lhe south. It consisted at the time of the Spanish conquest of a number of sma ll independenl tribes living in a comparative– ly primitive stale. The area was certainly rich in gold, and still is, but instead of melal objects being kept in the vast hoards which made Inca treasure ,o fatally accessible to the Conquis– tadores. in Colombia. gold seems lo have been reserved mainly for ceremonial and burial purposes. Con,, ,1uen1- ly, a great deal of it rcm,dned hidden in graves. Only the lucals knew where. The lradition of local secrecy continued long af1er the days when the Spanish invaders would read their disgraceful and hastily-passed Requisition Laws to the natives before murdering them and stealing their goods. Indeed. once gold objects became vnluable in their own right as art objecls. there wa~ even more lo be gained by keeping quiel. Hence 1he cmergcrce with– in the last century of a race of freelance treasure hunters or grave robbers l:nown as guacqueros, who have guard– ed within their fami lies the secrets of where the gold may be found. With official archaeology somclhing of a vi rgin sport in Colombia, it is these guac– queros who have come up wi1h the bulk of the gold now in lhe Gold Museum and who have been reasonably well paid for it. In this way the Banco de la Republica has effectively been able to stern much of the now of national trc,w.ires which would otherwise have been smuggled a broad. Sadly, the methods of the guacqueros have eliminated ulmosl all archaeological evidence that might ha\'e enabled experts to dale the gold accuralcly and to build up some picture of how it was made and how it mJy have been used. What docs clearly emerge is lhat goldsmiths in whal is today Colombia achieved umu1.ing technical results with ext remely primitive means. Many centuries before the Spa nish conquest lhcse craflsmcn in sma ll Indian 1ribes certainly knew about 1hc los1-wux process of cast– ing: and lhey knew abou t soldering. rolIing, wire– drawing. filigree-work. in1ag– lio, embossing. a nd other sophis1 ic111cd skills. The objects they made were also astonishingly varied in style bclwecn one lribe und an,llhcr. The work of the Muisca people, for instance, who lived round llacata and whose priest-king ii was who cast gold offerings into Lake Gua1avi1a, consisls for lhc most part of liny plaque-like figures wearing huge head– dresses and with features applkd by means of fused gold wires. The Muiscas possessed no gold of 1hcir own, bul enjoyed a virlual monopoly of emer– alds, which they traded l'or it among neighbouring tribes. lly contrast, Daricn gold– work from the north. along the Pa11arn~1 islhmus. is vir~ tually abstract and wa, d ear– ly d~signed lo be worn. In fact the Cuna Indians from lhis region arc today the onl)' ones who still wear gold ornaments. Not much more than 100 year, ago the Bank of Eng– land was importing objecls like these in bulk from Sout h t\rncriea in order to mell them into ingots 10 swell the British gold reserve. It i, a curious thought that the gold pocket watches ,olcmnly consul1cd by Viclor– ian fa1h rs may once have been figures from 1hc sacred raiment ,if a South American priest-king. • JAGUAR pend • nl In CHI gold from the Slnu region. Th • piece I • 7.2 cm high • nd 12.1 cm long. Monkey • , b • l1, bird~, frog,, crocodile • • nd dog • feature In Colombian gold work. POPORO, or lime container, In lh • form of a wom • n, from Qulmb • y • . REGALIA from the middle Cauc • Rlv • r Valley, lh • Mu • eo Del Oro, Bogol • . Sunday Mall Co/or, July 9, 1978 / I/