Gold in Bogota, Columbia

t is good to be reminded that there were great civilizations in the Americas dating at least to 1000 BCE and that they produced art of great sophistication.  A visit to the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) in Bogota confirmed that.  The museum is filled with precious pre-Columbian art including masks made of hammered gold and figurines and sculptures of pottery and bone.  There was also stunning jewelery and religious art.  The museum itself is modern and shows a number of films and graphics that help explain the background of the objects.  But most of the objects are gold and many were used by kings, priests and other elites to emphasize their power.  Some things never change.

It is somewhat of a wonder that so many of these wonderful artworks survived the Spanish conquest and were not just melted down to be shipped to Spain.  It's our luck that they survived.