At Colombia's Museo Nacional, 63 removed objects return to the galleries
· BehindLines newsroom · Updated
The Museo Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá has put back into its permanent galleries 63 objects that the government had had removed on 15 October, following a court decision. The newspaper The Art Newspaper reported the return on 2 November. The removal dates from 15 October and the ruling from the 28th; NTN24 had already reported the return on 30 October.
A removal, then a court order
According to The Art Newspaper, the removal was carried out by the Ministry of Culture on the orders of the government of President Abelardo de la Espriella, in the name of fighting "political indoctrination". The paper reports that the executive describes the move as a "cultural war". The daily El País Colombia, in an article of 29 October, relays another wording from the authorities: a review of exhibitions, a rotation of collections and "institutional neutrality". Culture Minister Paola Holguín is quoted there as saying that public museums must not become spaces of indoctrination or of partial versions of history. The ministry denies any censorship or discrimination. According to Noticias RCN (29 October), the judge criticised the ministry for invoking a presidential instruction targeting content for its political and historical significance without a specific curatorial assessment.
Lawmakers and collectives went to court with fundamental-rights petitions (tutelas). Representative Gabriel Becerra, joined by LGBTIQ+ collectives, is among the petitioners. According to El País Colombia, Judge César Enrique Osorio Ortiz of Bogotá's 24th Family Court ordered the ministry and the museum to return the 63 pieces within 48 hours; the 38-page decision brings together 15 actions. The Art Newspaper places the order on the evening of 28 October and says the ministry complied on Friday 30 October.
What the ruling requires
According to El País Colombia, the objects must be put back where they were displayed, under adequate conservation conditions. The court also requires a parallel technical and curatorial evaluation with the museum's heritage management committee, based on criteria of historical memory, differential and gender approaches, pluralism, equality and the prohibition of censorship. The judge bars the removal of works solely because of their content or the viewpoint they express. He does not prevent future changes, provided they go through institutional channels with verifiable justification. An earlier precautionary measure had already required that the pieces be kept and that no further removals take place.
The objects named include a rainbow flag belonging to activist Elizabeth Castillo, the pen made from a bullet and used to sign the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC, and posters, among them one for a day against violence toward women (The Art Newspaper) and one from a Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa campaign (El País Colombia). The pieces come notably from the "Memoria y Nación" and "Hacer Sociedad" rooms. According to El País Colombia, the special jurisdiction for peace (JEP) has also asked the ministry and the museum for inventories, photographs and records of the authorisations for changes concerning objects linked to victims of the conflict.
Reactions from the museum world
The Art Newspaper reports that hundreds of people gathered outside the museum and that six institutions, the modern art museums of Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Medellín and Tolima together with Museo Rayo, expressed "deep concern" and called for respect for museums' professional autonomy. The chief curator of Medellín's modern art museum, Marielsa Castro Vizcarra, spoke of a "precedent" to take into account and of an authoritarian way of spreading fear. Gabriel Becerra wrote on X that no government owns the country's history.
What is not known
Semana reported on 30 October that the ministry had confirmed the return to it. According to NTN24 (30 October), the pieces came back to the galleries on 29 and 30 October, but the room "Fuerza, fe y sustancia" remained closed during the reinstallation. We have not checked whether an appeal is planned. The debate over how to revise the galleries remains open: the court leaves room for justified changes but rules out those based on the opinion the works express.