The eight pieces of Colombian heritage they want to auction off in Paris

Around the clock, seven Latin American countries are trying to stop the sale of their archaeological heritage at the Millon & Associates auction house in Paris. Named bid date Empires of the Fourth Light: European Private Collections of Pre-Columbian Art It’s April 3, and they plan to sell 109 pre-Columbian lots from Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, and Colombia.

The embassies of those countries decided to act in a coordinated manner and refused to sell these cultural assets. “In a joint statement to the French government and calling for a “stopping of transactions”, they stated, “Once again, we deplore the continuation of illegal trade practices in cultural goods that undermine the heritage, history and identity of our peoples.” In which this Parisian home put up for sale pre-Columbian heritage. “(The auctions) encourage looting, illegal trade and asset laundering perpetrated by transnational organized crime,” Ambassadors say.

Columbia, which blocks the sale of 8 pre-Columbian lots, joined in the denial and noted that such sales “encourage the looting, illegal trade, and asset laundering perpetrated by transnational organized crime.” Gustavo Petro’s government’s Ministry of External Relations confirmed that these artifacts are authentic.

Luis Armando Soto, director of cultural affairs at the State Department, explained that the Institute of Anthropology and History (Icahn) has not found any history of the loss or theft of these pieces, but they do have some tentative lines about how this heritage was made. removed from the country. “It is difficult to say when a piece of land leaves the area. Mexico has suggested that rather than states having to prove how they issued it, it is the auctioneer who shows the legal origin of what they were selling and not the other way around. Colombia is close to this position.

France has been one of the main destinations for the illegal trade in artifacts from Colombia. In 2016, Icahn discovered that 21 objects from different cultures had been auctioned at Christie’s Gallery in Paris; 26 others from the Tumaco, Tayrona, and Quimbaya cultures at the Gaia house in the French capital; And in Melón, where the process is now being repeated, they auctioned off a muisca culture and 14 tumacos.

According to the Icanh expert’s report, the first of the eight pieces Mellon now intends to sell is a face mask from the Kalima culture, from 200 BC to 500 AD. The face of the master shaman with a grim expression appears under the influence of the alkaloid tropane (a mixture of coca leaves with lime). “The back of the piece has a pure round shape. The Casa Millones website says, which also states that this piece was reviewed in July 1997 by Conservation and Technical Services Ltd, of Birkbeck College, University of London.”

Others are “three circular ornaments”. This is how Mellon called the carved, hammered, and assembled golden figures of the Quimbaya culture, from 200 to 1500 AD. Also on sale is a gold embossed and openwork pectoral from the Kalima culture, from 100 BC to AD 500. Three heads of shamans under the influence of an alkaloid. “Her alert attention and dynamic gaze is accentuated by her wide eyes,” says the auction page, adding that it has “some small chips, slightly wrinkled edges, tears, a pre-Columbian Aboriginal recovery.”

the others a gold earring, which they sell with other pieces from Peru and Mexico; Nariño culture serving bowl with two stylized natural deer and terracotta decor; and a stone ax with an angled edge that comes from the Tyrona culture.

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