The Bolivarian Collection
The beginning of the museum’s collection is stipulated in article 3 of law 53 of 1919, whereby the government created the Board of the Quinta y Museo de Bolívar, a board that destined $20,000 pesos from the national treasury to “complete the Quinta’s required cost and the purchase of the objects that the Sociedad de Embellecimiento (The Embellishment Society), considers appropriate to be in the museum”.
In exercise of its functions, in order to constitute the museum, the board began to acquire the furniture for the Quinta, with the Academy of History’s advice. In 1921, the transfer of cannons used in the independence struggle abandoned in the San Carlos Palace was authorized, but only until 1921 were they brought to the Quinta, along some personal objects of El Libertador, such as decorative pieces and furniture that were in the aforementioned Palace. Other objects found in The National Museum, such as portraits, a desk, and some daily use and clothing pieces, were also brought.
Thus, this is the base of the Bolivarian Collection, which continued to expand with the acquisitions made by the Quinta’s Administrative Board during the first half of the 20th century, and also with the transfer of certain objects from other museums and public entities, as well as with donations made by people such as Eduardo Santos, Teresa Cuervo Borda, Guillermo Quijano, Jaime Hincapié, Félix Restrepo, and others.
Nowadays, several institutional and particular donators keep enriching the Quinta de Bolívar’s patrimonial treasure. Among these stand the Beatriz Osorio Foundation, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and people such as Belisario Betancur, Édgar Negret, Blanca Gaitán de París, the Wills and Ujueta families, and Cecilia Mejía.
An initial investigative work on the collection’s precedents was done by Diana Torres de Ospina in 1999. She analyzed the purchased acquisitions, the objects sent by the Sociedad de Embellecimiento in 1924, the donations and objects sent from other museums, the objects transferred from the Quinta to the Museum of Independence, as well as some objects that have been certified to have belonged to El Libertador Simón Bolívar.
Collection Highlights
