Museo del Oro
World-renowned collection of pre-Hispanic gold work, including the Muisca Raft.
The Museo del Oro, run by Colombia's central bank, the Banco de la República, holds one of the world's largest collections of pre-Hispanic goldwork. Its origins lie in the bank's decision to protect the country's archaeological heritage, and in December 1939 it acquired the Poporo Quimbaya, a gold lime container that became the first piece of the collection. The museum stands beside Parque Santander in central Bogotá and is one of the most visited cultural attractions in Colombia.
The present building was designed by the Colombian architect Germán Samper Gnecco and inaugurated in 1968. Its austere modernist exterior, clad in marble above a glazed ground floor, was conceived as a plain casket for the treasures inside, and it received Colombia's National Architecture Prize in 1970. After around a decade of work, an expansion also designed by Samper, adding a taller adjoining block, new exhibition halls, an auditorium and visitor facilities, was completed and opened to the public in October 2008.
The collection comprises more than 34,000 gold and metal objects and around 20,000 items of stone, ceramic, shell and textile from the societies of pre-Hispanic Colombia. Permanent galleries on the upper floors explore metalworking techniques, the role of gold in social life and cosmology, and the practice of offerings. The best-known object is the Muisca Raft, a small gold votive piece found near Pasca and associated with the ceremony behind the El Dorado legend. Temporary exhibitions occupy additional galleries.
Highlights
- One of the world's largest collections of pre-Hispanic gold and metalwork
- The Muisca Raft, a gold offering linked to the legend of El Dorado
- The Poporo Quimbaya, the first object acquired for the collection in 1939
- Offering Room with an immersive display of gold objects
- Modernist marble building by Germán Samper, National Architecture Prize 1970
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