Golden alienation: The uneasy fortune of the Gold Museum in Bogotá

Abstract

Is Prehispanic gold a commodity or a gift? In the process of becoming a first-tier icon of Colombian identity, the Gold Museum in Bogotá has attempted to formulate an answer to this thorny question. Far from encouraging the valuation of gold artifacts as ancient commodities related to mundane aspects of social life, the Museum has focused its curatorial mission on enhancing the symbolic and spiritual meaning of its archaeological collections. In this article, I trace back the historical reasons leading the Museum to take such a path at the risk of favoring an essentialized understanding of Prehispanic goldwork in the present. Although maintaining this choice in a multicultural nation such as the one the Republic of Colombia officially claims to be today is a problematic decision, the Museum can build upon a refined understanding of the materiality of gold to overcome this impasse and bridge past and present in a socially productive way. Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications.