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SPK cooperates with Colombia
Press release from 09/16/2022
The Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin holds two masks from the indigenous Kogi community from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. They are objects with a ritual background and still have sacred significance for the Kogi, whose self-designation is "Kágaba". Because of this special significance, the SPK and the Embassy of Colombia in Germany have begun talks.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "Having been in contact with representatives of the indigenous organisation Gonavindúa Tayrona and the ICANH (Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia) for several years, Colombia has now requested the return of the two masks. I hope that we will soon have clarified the remaining questions in order to find an appropriate solution for Colombia and the Kogi, with which I will then approach the Foundation's bodies as soon as possible, as the final decision on this must be made by the SPK Board of Trustees. I look forward to more intensive cooperation in other areas in the near future."
Ambassador Salazar-Mejía: "The return of the masks to Colombia is a matter of great importance to us. I would like to thank Professor Parzinger and Professor Koch for their openness and constructive discussions, which have made me very confident that the masks will soon be back in Colombia at their place of origin with the Kogi."
In addition to the masks, the joint talks also covered a memorandum of understanding on the preservation of archaeological collections and the scientific study of Colombian collections in Germany, as well as joint research into pre-Columbian goldsmithing techniques. The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin will also establish a collaboration with Colombia in 2023 as part of its 2023 residency programme, which will focus on the Berlin collection of objects from the San Agustín culture and related objects, as well as on the archaeological and historical study of pre-Columbian gold objects from the Ethnologisches Museum.
Ethnographic and pre-Columbian objects in the collections of the Ethnological Museum
The two Kogi masks were acquired in 1915 by Konrad Theodor Preuss, ethnologist and curator of the Royal Museum of Ethnology, the predecessor institution of the Ethnological Museum. Preuss collected over 700 objects on a research trip to Colombia between 1913 and 1919, of which around 440 are still preserved in the Ethnological Museum. The objects from the "Preuss Collection" were shown for a long time in the permanent exhibition of today's Ethnological Museum and occasionally in special exhibitions. In the Humboldt Forum, gold artefacts from this collection from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Muisca region are on display in the module "The value of gold" on the first floor.
Preuss amassed a small collection during his research stay with the Kágaba. In co-operation with several mamas (priests of the Kágaba), he also recorded myths and songs in the Kágaba language (kougian) and published them with a translation in 1926. Preuß acquired the two masks from the heir of a deceased Mama, "thanks to a favourable opportunity", as he wrote in his book "Forschungsreise zu den Kágaba" (1926). He was not aware of the age or the special significance of the masks. According to the Kágaba/Kogi tradition, the masks are inalienable objects that have been passed down from generation to generation of mamas. They still have sacred significance today and are seen, among other things, as guarantors for the continued existence of the reclaimed territories.
One of Preuss' main concerns was researching the prehistoric "monolithic culture" of San Agustín in southern Colombia. He published a two-volume catalogue of the sculptures preserved there, some of which he excavated or merely localised. He produced numerous replicas, which were later cast in the Berlin plaster moulding shop. Preuss also brought some of the original stone sculptures from San Agustín and Briceño to Berlin, 23 of which are still preserved in the Ethnological Museum, as well as six heads of such stone sculptures.
