Landmark South America
Gold Museum
The Gold Museum is in Bogotá, Colombia. It keeps very old gold objects made by people who lived there long, long ago!
The Gold Museum (Museo del Oro) in Bogotá, Colombia, belongs to Colombia's central bank, which says it keeps one of the most important collections of ancient goldwork in the world, made by peoples who lived in the land that is now Colombia before the Spanish arrived. Its building on Santander Park opened in 1968.
The Museo del Oro of the Banco de la República, Colombia's central bank, began in 1939, when the bank bought a Quimbaya poporo and saved it from being melted down. Its marble-clad building on Santander Park, designed by a team led by Germán Samper Gnecco, opened on 24 April 1968 and a new building was added in 2004. The goldwork collection was declared National Heritage in 1994.
Photo: Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover the Gold Museum
The Gold Museum is in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.
Inside, there are thousands of gold objects that people made long ago.
The Gold Museum stands on Santander Park in the center of Bogotá. It belongs to the Banco de la República, Colombia's central bank, which says it holds one of the most important collections of ancient goldwork in the world.
Its job is to keep, study and share objects made long ago by the peoples of the land that is now Colombia: mostly gold, with pottery and other materials too.
The Museo del Oro belongs to the Banco de la República, founded in 1923 as Colombia's central bank. In 2004 the museum described its roles as preserving and building cultural memory and as a communicator and informal educator; besides goldwork, its collections hold pottery and other materials.
The bank describes its pre-Hispanic goldwork collection as one of the most important in the world; its objects were made by pre-Hispanic societies of the land that is today Colombia between 500 BCE and 1600 CE. In 2004 it worked in Bogotá, in seven regional museums and through traveling exhibitions in Colombia and abroad.
- Where
- Santander Park, Bogotá, Colombia
- Collection began
- 1939
- Building opened
- 24 April 1968
- Run by
- Banco de la República
Saved from melting
Long ago, some old gold objects were melted down.
In 1939, Colombia's bank bought one beautiful old object to save it. That was the start of the museum!
In 1939 the Banco de la República bought a beautiful old container called the Quimbaya poporo, saving it from being melted down. That purchase started the collection.
In the 1940s the bank bought more goldwork so it would not be melted or taken out of the country. The name Gold Museum was first used in 1944, and in 1959 the collection opened to everyone, in a room under the bank's new building.
The Banco de la República, founded in 1923, bought a Quimbaya poporo in 1939, saving it from being melted down; the purchase began the collection. Through the early 1940s the aim was to acquire and preserve Colombia's pre-Hispanic goldwork so it would not be melted down or leave the country.
The name 'Museo del Oro' appeared in 1944. From 1947 the collection was shown to special visitors in its own room, and in 1959 it opened to the general public in the basement of the bank's new building at Avenida Jiménez and Carrera 7.
A marble box on a glass box
The museum's building is like a big white box.
It sits on top of a floor with glass walls!
The bank asked an architecture firm to design a building just for the museum, and the architect Germán Samper Gnecco led the work from 1961 to 1968. A museum journal calls the result a marble box on a glass box.
The building opened on 24 April 1968. A new building opened next to it in December 2004, with a plan to join the two by 2007.
Shortly before 1961 the bank commissioned the architecture office Esguerra Sáenz Urdaneta Suárez y Cía. to design a building for the museum; Germán Samper Gnecco directed the project from 1961 to 1968. The Boletín Museo del Oro calls it a marble box on a glass box on a corner site in central Bogotá, and Samper described a 15 m cantilever holding up the box that faces Santander Park.
It opened on 24 April 1968 and soon won Bogotá's Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada prize (1968) and a prize at the 1970 Colombian Architecture Biennial.
Inside the museum
The museum has rooms full of gold.
Its gold has also traveled to museums on five continents!
The 1968 museum showed many gold objects together in a room called the Salón Dorado, the Golden Room. The 2004-2007 plan was for four permanent exhibition rooms, a room for temporary shows and the Exploratorio, a room for children and young people.
Between 1954 and 2004, the museum says, 123 museums and galleries on five continents invited it to hold exhibitions.
The 1968 displays had three aims: to teach about pre-Hispanic goldwork and pottery, to show selected pieces as works of universal art in a high-security vault, and to move visitors with the Salón Dorado, a room filled with gold objects. In 1994 the National Monuments Council declared the goldwork collection National Heritage of Colombia.
The 2004-2007 project planned 13,000 m² of space, four permanent exhibition rooms, a temporary exhibition room and the Exploratorio for children and young people. By 2004 about 50,000 objects in all its collections had been photographed in color.
- Objects photographed (2004)
- about 50,000
- Goldwork made National Heritage
- 1994
- New building opened
- December 2004
- Regional museums (2004)
- 7
At the entrance
This photo shows the museum's big white wall with its name in large letters.
People walk in the square in front.
Felipe Restrepo Acosta took this photo on 6 April 2010. It shows the entrance on Calle 16, at Santander Park: a big pale wall with the words 'museo del oro' in large letters, above a dark ground floor, with leaf shadows on the wall, a street lamp, tall buildings behind and people walking in the square.
The photo (Felipe Restrepo Acosta, 6 April 2010) shows the entrance on Calle 16 at Santander Park: the marble-clad upper box with 'museo del oro' in large letters, the shaded ground floor beneath, a street lamp with round globes, taller buildings behind and passers-by on the paving.
In 2004 the museum wrote that Colombian families lined up patiently to visit it on its free-entry Sundays.
Amazing facts
-
The whole museum began with just one object!
The collection began in 1939, when the bank bought a single container, the Quimbaya poporo.
With the purchase of the Quimbaya poporo in December 1939, the Banco de la República began the Gold Museum's collection.
-
The building has a part that sticks far out with no post under its corner!
The architect said the box facing Santander Park rests on a cantilever 15 meters long, so no column is needed at the corner.
Germán Samper Gnecco described a 15 m cantilever carrying the box that faces Santander Park, which avoids a corner column.
-
The museum's gold has visited museums on five continents!
Between 1954 and 2004, 123 museums and galleries on five continents invited the museum to hold exhibitions.
Boletín Museo del Oro 52 (2004): between 1954 and 2004 the museum held exhibitions at the invitation of 123 museums and galleries of recognized prestige on five continents.
Words to know
- goldwork
- objects made by shaping gold and other metals
- pre-Hispanic
- from the time before people from Spain arrived in the Americas
- central bank
- a country's main bank, which looks after its money
- cantilever
- a part of a building that sticks out and is held up at only one end
- collection
- a group of objects that a museum keeps and looks after
- heritage
- things from the past that people want to keep for the future
Discovery challenge
-
In which city is the Gold Museum?
In which capital city is the Gold Museum?
The Museo del Oro stands on Santander Park in which capital city?
- Bogotá
- Lima
- Quito
Show the answer
Bogotá
Bogotá!
Bogotá, Colombia.
Bogotá, Colombia.
-
Who runs the Gold Museum?
Which organization runs the Gold Museum?
The Museo del Oro belongs to which institution, founded in 1923?
- Colombia's central bank
- A soccer club
- A gold mine
Show the answer
Colombia's central bank
Colombia's bank!
Colombia's central bank, the Banco de la República.
The Banco de la República, Colombia's central bank.
-
When did the museum's collection begin?
In which year did the bank buy the object that began the collection?
In which year did the Banco de la República buy the Quimbaya poporo?
- 1939
- 1968
- 1810
Show the answer
1939
In 1939!
In 1939.
1939.
-
Why did the bank buy old gold objects?
Why did the bank buy ancient goldwork in the 1940s?
What was the bank's main aim in buying pre-Hispanic goldwork in the early 1940s?
- To stop them being melted down
- To make new coins
- To sell them abroad
Show the answer
To stop them being melted down
To save them from melting!
So they would not be melted down or taken out of the country.
To preserve them, so they would not be melted down or leave Colombia.
-
When did the museum's own building open?
In which year did the museum's building on Santander Park open?
In which year did the building designed by Samper's team open, on 24 April?
- 1968
- 1939
- 2020
Show the answer
1968
In 1968!
In 1968.
1968.
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Colombia
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Bogotá
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain why a museum might be started to save objects from being destroyed.
- Describe what archaeologists learn from objects made long ago.
- Explain what a cantilever is.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might old gold objects have been melted down in the past?
- Why is it important that objects found in a country can be seen by the people who live there?
- What would you put in a museum about your town?
Try at home or in class
- Hold a ruler flat on a table edge with part of it sticking out, and press gently on the end to feel how a cantilever works.
- Make a small museum display of three family objects, with a label for each one.
Key vocabulary: goldwork, pre-Hispanic, central bank, cantilever, collection, heritage
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Historia del Museo del Oro (Boletín Museo del Oro 1, 1978) , Banco de la República, Museo del Oro
- La renovación y ampliación del Museo del Oro del Banco de la República en Bogotá, Colombia, 2004-2007 (Boletín Museo del Oro 52) , Banco de la República, Museo del Oro (Clara Isabel Botero)
- El proyecto arquitectónico del Museo del Oro, 1961-1968 (Boletín Museo del Oro 59, 2020) , Banco de la República, Museo del Oro (Christian Camilo Casallas Nope)
- File:BOG Museo del Oro.JPG , Wikimedia Commons
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.