A BLADE SIGNING AN ACT
By Daniel Castro Benítez
In the city of Bogotá, at 5 p.m. on November 28 1919, Luis Cuervo Márquez; Minister of Government; Eduardo Restrepo Sáenz, Governor of Cundinamarca; Santiago de Castro, the city’s Mayor; and Raimundo Rivas, Preisdent of the Sociedad de Embellecimiento of Bogotá, met in the minister’s office. They intended to form the Quinta y Museo de Bolívar Board, created by the law 53 of 1919.
Before leaving Bogotá to travel to France, El Libertador presented his Quinta as a gift to José Ignacio París, one of his most faithful friends. This gesture of generosity evoked the way in which the Government of the newborn Republic of Colombia had given the house to Bolívar in 1820. There he celebrated the most glorious moments of his military career, but the house became also a refuge where he could express without worries his melancholy, which he had because of the personal and political disappointments he felt in that intense historical moment.
In 1919, almost one hundred years after El Libertador strolled through its halls and rooms, and after a long history of diverse uses and of desirable and undesirable guests, the Quinta was rescued from its imminent destruction by the Sociedad de Embellecimeinto, today called Sociedad de Mejoras y Ornato. Alfonso Robledo, president of the Sociedad, bought it, and the Nation returned to him the money he spent a year later.
On May 20 1920, the Board Quinta y Museo de Bolívar Board met in the Minister of Government’s office, with the presence of all its members, namely Luis Cuervo Márquez, Minister of Government; Eduardo Restrepo Sáenz, Governor of Cundinamarca; Santiago de Castro, the city’s Mayor; and Raimundo Rivas, Preisdent of the Sociedad de Embellecimiento of Bogotá. In this meeting, “a memorandum of Mr. Carlos Ospina O. was read, in which he offers the Museum the sale of a collection of original documents and objects of El Libertador. The memorandum was sent to the Sociedad de Embellecimiento for it to decide on the purchase, according to law “[11].
The acts and books of the Sociedad indicate that no attention was paid to such an offer, so the nature of the documents and objects tendered by Ospina is unknown.
“Then a document from the Ministry of Government was read. It answered another document from the Sociedad, and in it the Ministry says that it has been ordered that the Quinta be guarded by an escort from the police. With that intention in mind, the Sociedad’s President has said that the Minister of Public Instruction had showed the best will to transport El Libertador’s objects of the National Museum to the Quinta, as well as the pieces that the Society consider convenient to be in the Bolivarian Museum. Then the Board agreed on sending the Ministry of Government’s note to the Ministry of Public Instruction, intending to let the latter know that the objects to be brought to the Quinta will by sufficiently guarded and safely kept” [12].
The Sociedad’s president, Raimundo Rivas, has verbally informed that due to the Minister of Government’s enthusiasm “the transportation of the historical objects that belonged to El Libertador and that are in the national Museum would begin next Saturday, for them to be part of the Bolivarian Museum” [13].
In a 1922 inventory, found in the Quinta’s archives, in which the objects and pieces that had come from the national Museum are registered; no mention is made of the sword in question. Thus, it is definitively ruled out that this piece had come from this place.
On November 15 1922, a proposal of Mr. Pérez was approved. It stipulated that “the Sociedad de Embellecimiento decides that the inauguration of the Museum and Library of the Quinta de Bolívar will take place on the 19th day of the current month, as well as the awarding of medals of 1921 and 1922 to those Inspectors who the Commission believes deserve them” [14].
As planned, on November 19, a meeting took place in the Quinta’s main room. It began at 4:10 in the afternoon and it was held by the members of the Sociedad de Embellecimiento, the city’s Mayor, members of the National Academy of History, and nine municipal inspectors. The speech was in charge of Raimundo Rivas, and the session concluded with the awarding of medals to two municipal inspectors for their works. The meeting was adjourned at five in the afternoon [15].
In the Sociedad de Embellecimiento’s Board’s meeting on June 11 1923, Raimundo Rivas exhorted the partners to “get informed about the existence of objects from the Bolivarian times and pieces related to El Libertador, in order to do all necessary to acquire them for the Quinta, to enrich the Museum” [16] .
According to the acts books, this request only achieved to find two mirrors identical to the ones EL Libertador brought from Perú after his triumphant campaign. These mirrors were in a shoe factory opposite to the San Francisco Church, and Rivas and Robledo were commissioned to try and get them. It is unknown whether the mirrors were actually purchased.
On October 3 1923, the whole Committee of the Quinta met and unanimously elected Jorge Saiz Montoya as the secretary. The Committee then intended to create a general expenses plan, properly ordered in chapters, and destining sufficient quantities for the conservation and material administration of the Museum and Library.
Inspector Restrepo Sáenz made a report of his inspection in the Quinta on August 13 1923, and was surprised when noticing that certain objects were disordered, and that, beside some objects that had belonged to El Libertador, there were some others that had no reason to be there [17].
Three months later the Committee decided “that historical objects be purchased for the Museum by means of the National Academy of History, for this was the best channel”. On December 3 1924 Restrepo Sáenz said that “the Academy of History had appointed academics José Manuel Marroquín, Eduardo Restrepo Sáenz, and Gerardo Arrubla members of the commission in charge of deciding what objects were to be acquired for the Museum of the Quinta de Bolívar[18].
In the handwritten inventory of 1924, which is kept in the Quinta, the object in question is mentioned as “a sword with a golden hilt and a copper scabbard that is thought to have belonged to El Libertador. Acquisition of the Quinta’s Board”. Further on a pair of ring stirrups and a pair of silver spurs are mentioned. These objects are also believed to have belonged to El Libertador and are also registered as acquisitions of the Board. Anyway, it is still unconfirmed whether these objects were approved by the Academy of History, and so is its exact origin.
This is the only mention made of these objects’ coming to the Quinta de Bolívar’s collection. In the 1932 and 1933 inventories they are already registered in their exact place of exhibition, namely the piano room, inside a hickory replica showcase that contains uniform pieces of El Libertador. Among these pieces is a golden hilt sword with a copper scabbard.
It is important to say that the stirrups and spurs were valued in the 1933 inventory at 60 pesos. The sword with its copper scabbard, a double barrel shotgun, and a spear with no shaft were valued together at 341 pesos.
A typed inventory was made for the new manager Luis Ángel Oñate on February 8 1936. In it, the sword, the spurs, and the stirrups are mentioned, these latter as “a pair of gold stirrups”, believed to have been El Libertador’s. When this inventory is compared with the handwritten version, it is evident that the typer made a mistake. Where the first document says “estribos de aro”, ring stirrups, he wrote “estribos de oro”, which means gold stirrups. By mistakenly replacing an “a” with an “o”, he gave the stirrups a totally new characteristic.
According to the inventories made in those years, in the showcase room inside a big cabinet, there were a pair of stirrups and a pair of spurs. This means that the pieces were shown separately until they were put together in an arrangement. This arrangement was registered in the 1945 inventory, signed by the Inspectors of the Quinta de Bolívar Raimundo Rivas and Eduardo Restrepo Sáenz, and proved by A. Moreno Rocha and Ciro Vega Aguilera, delegates from the Auditor General’s Office, on June 1 1945.
Registered with number 80 in that inventory is a red and gold table showcase where the sword, the ring stirrups, and the spurs were exhibited. This showcase was put in the front dining room, and, according to a handwritten inscription in the inventory, it “passed to the main room”. It was acquired by the Board of the Quinta.
In the catalog of the Quinta de Bolívar, there are inventories and printed documents all form the second half of the 20th century. The papers from 1959, 1962, 1965, and 1976 describe the objects from the collection and their locations in the house. They include the sword and the spurs.
In a catalogue of the Quinta made by Roberto París Gaitán, he mentions that in the Reception Room, “with white and gold bordered furniture, whose red cloths, matching with the carpet and the curtains, give the environment a passionate look; the southeast section, where El Libertador welcomed his friends and political allies, keeps the most precious relics of his genius and acts. In a showcase lie his triumphant sword and a gold dagger presented to Bolívar as a gift. Another cabinet holds hairs of his, little pieces from the coffin that temporarily kept his ashes in a lead coffer, and a fragment of its metal lock”.
Further on París Gaitán says that “Giving a different perspective of Bolívar, one of vigor and fight, his spurs and stirrups evoke his journeys traveling through mountains and valleys persecuting the enemies of freedom”. These objects seem to have been in the same showcase, for no detail indicates the opposite.
As observed, from a simple and brief description in an inventory, a more specific and subjective one developed, in which the objects received a more special and mythical assessment.
In a museum guide edited by the Sociedad de Mejoras y Ornato de Bogotá in 1962 and illustrated by Enrique Gómez Campuzano, it is said that in the same room described by París Gaitán there is a showcase in which “campaign objects that belonged to El Libertador (sword, spurs, and stirrups)”, are kept. The cabinet was surrounded by 18th century furniture with red damask upholstery.
In 1965, in an inventory made by Héctor Latorre Prada, the sword used by Bolívar is registered with number 73, and, in parenthesis, Batalla de Boyacá (Battle of Boyacá), is written. With number 76 appear the “metal spurs, silver imitation, belonged to EL Libertador”, and with number 86 are the “ring stirrups, silver imitation, belonged to El Libertador”. These objects’ value was then estimated as follows:
Sword: 10,000 pesos
Spurs: 800 pesos
Stirrups: 500 pesos
It must be noticed that for the first time the sword is said to have been used in Boyacá. The reason for this statement is unknown. Besides, the sword, stirrups, and spurs have a new appraisal in pesos, and receive a much higher value than the other objects from the collection that had actually belonged to Bolívar. This is especially true for the sword.
Without necessarily sharing this information with the visitors, it is clear that time gave this collection piece increasing additional values besides the economical. This fact, among other causes, led the M-19 to steal the sword from the museum in 1974.
Besides from this fact, in a document from January 1970, signed by the Quinta’s manager Héctor Latorre Prada, it is said “that I receive these objects in the same state as they were given to the Colombian Institute of Culture, in order to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Creation of Colombia with a representative exhibition”. The list includes five objects: “A sword with scabbard that belonged to Bolívar, along with a silver inkwell, six Bolivarian medals, a sword with scabbard that belonged to General Santander, and Pedro José Figueroa’s painting of Bolívar with the American allegory.
As shown in the list, the objects exhibited in the aforementioned celebration were the most valuable of the Bolivarian Collection. They were surely noticed by the public, as well as by the members of the M-19. In January 19 1974, this subversive group stole the sword from the place in which it had been unmoved since 1945, a red and golden showcase in the Quinta de Bolívar. After the robbery, his cabinet remained in exhibition. It was empty, silently waiting for the symbol’s return.
After stealing the sword, the M-19 wrote a message on the walls: “Bolívar, your sword is back in the struggle”. Beside it they wrote a famous statement Bolívar made on January 2 1814: “I will keep my sword unsheathed as long as the liberty of my homeland is not completely assured”. On a pronouncement from January 20 1974, the M-19 said that ”Bolivar’s struggle continues, Bolívar isn’t dead. His sword tears the museum’s cobwebs, and is thrown into today’s combats. It has passed to our hands. To the hands of the armed people. And it aims against the national and foreign masters. Against those who locked it in museums to let it rot. Those who distorted the ideas of El Libertador. Those who will call us subversive traitors”.
Diana Torres de Ospina’s investigation on the Quinta de Bolívar’s collection history shows a curious fact. No charges were formally pressed for this important object’s robbery. Moreover, the theft seems to have put in evidence the Quinta’s vulnerability as the security of its collection is concerned. There is a list of more than thirty five pieces (mostly documents) that, according to the aforementioned investigation, were stolen from the Museum from the late 70’s to 1990. In these cases, charges were pressed. Among these stolen objects is a golden case with hair of El Libertador and a golden engraved medal, as well as a letter written by Manuela Sáenz. The charges for the robbery of the first two pieces were pressed on September 21 1956, and for the latter’s, in April 21 1961.
Even if the M-19 saw museums as examples of a bourgeois, elitist, stagnated and stationary past, as did as a significant part of the public in the 60’s and 710’s; it must be said that this paradigm has been transformed in the 21st century. Museums are nowadays constantly looking to establish a dialogue with their visitors, to be recognized by the communities they serve as dynamical spaces in which communication, cultural encounters, and a constant interaction are possible. The Quinta de Bolívar House Museum is not an exception, for it leads an outstanding educational project that searches to build meanings with all national and foreign visitors.
