Word: goldworking
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...Goldwork, of course, is Colombia's real forte, and this is dramatically on display in the heart of Bogotá's downtown at the Museo del Oro, tel: (57-1) 343 2221. It reopened last fall following a 10-year renovation. Drenched in sunlight and sprawling over a quartet of gallery-filled floors, the Museo includes 6,500 gold and ceramic pieces - many more than 2,000 years old. (See more about Colombia...
...Beaux Arts is one of the best museums outside Paris -- all the more since the reopening of 16 restored rooms in the north wing of the Palais Saint-Pierre. Among the 150 paintings, 70 sculptures and 250 objets d'art on display are medieval French ivories, enamels and goldwork; 10th to 14th century Islamic ceramics, arms and copperware; and Italian Renaissance sculpture, including Andrea Della Robbia's Virgin and Child and Mino da Fiesole's bust, St. John the Baptist. Seven of the rooms are devoted to painting: 17th century French works by Stella, Le Brun and Jouvenet, as well...
...those of the Shang period, 2,100 years earlier. Roman sculptors in the 2nd century A.D. made versions of 5th century B.C. Greek prototypes, and from then on, there would be an immense industry in the copying, overrestoration and outright forgery of everything antique -- marbles, bronzes, pots, cameo gems, goldwork...
Exquisite Profession. This dissolution of the art and artifacts of a whole culture to the crude denominator of bullion was especially ironic in view of the sheer multiplicity of use and image in pre-Columbian goldwork. No two figures are ever the same, and the range of imagery is as profuse as Colombian nature itself: alligators, jaguars, condors, deer, owls, lizards, macaws, and even hallucinogenic mushrooms. To the gaping Spaniards it seemed that anything, among these singular people, could be made of gold, from cooking pots to ceremonial masks and lime holders for coca chewing...
...deterrent to illicit trade is a U.S. law passed by Congress last fall prohibiting the import of pre-Columbian monumental sculpture and murals without the approval of the country of origin. This is a start, but not an end; it does not apply to smaller pieces like pottery and goldwork, and thieves in Latin America will destroy a whole site to find one Mayan gold ornament. One thing is clear: as long as astronomical prices are offered by rich countries, no local laws will keep robbers from plundering...
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