Colombia Returns 63 Removed Objects to Its National Museum
Colombia's national museum in Bogotá has put 63 objects back on display after a court ordered them returned. The Museo Nacional de Colombia reinstalled the works in its permanent galleries, according to The Art Newspaper.
The objects were taken off the walls on 15 October. Many of them dealt with LGBTQ+ rights and feminism. LGBTQ+ is a shorthand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other queer people.
Among the removed items was a pride flag belonging to activist Elizabeth Castillo. Another was a pen made from a bullet, used to sign the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials FARC. There was also a poster for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
President Abelardo de la Espriella described the works as promoting "communism," according to Al Jazeera. Hundreds of people protested the removal, and a judge later ordered the protection of the historical artefacts, as AP reported.
The case was brought through a tutela, a fast-track rights lawsuit that any Colombian can file. On the evening of 28 October, judge César Enrique Osorio Ortiz of Bogotá's 24th Family Court ordered the cultural ministry and the museum to return the works to their original locations within 48 hours. Infobae reported the order.
The court found that the items had been removed without a documented curatorial justification, meaning there was no written museum reasoning for the decision. It also barred the ministry and the museum from removing works because of their content or the views they express.
The cultural ministry complied on 30 October, two days after the order was issued. The ministry had dismounted the works, which is the term for taking them down from display, and Cambio reported their return to the museum.
The episode turned on a simple question: who decides what hangs in a public museum, and on what grounds. The court's answer is that a removal needs a documented reason tied to the collection, and not to what a work says. For visitors in Bogotá, the galleries now look as they did before 15 October.
