Objects Reinstalled at Museo Nacional de Colombia after Government Removal
A Bogotá judge ordered the return of 63 items, many related to LGBTQ+ rights and feminism, back into the museum’s permanent galleries earlier this month
Façade of the Museo Nacional de Colombia. Photo: Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Bogotá’s Museo Nacional de Colombia has reinstalled the 63 objects the national government removed from its permanent galleries on 15 October over claims of ‘political indoctrination’.
On 28 October, César Enrique Osorio Ortiz, a judge at Bogotá’s 24th Family Court, gave the culture ministry and the museum 48 hours to return the works to their original places. He also barred both institutions from removing works because of their content.
The ruling answered a constitutional-rights case brought by cultural groups and opposition politicians, who accused President Abelardo de la Espriella’s far-right government of censorship.
Many of the objects relate to LGBTQ+ rights and feminism; they include a pride flag and a pen made from a bullet used to sign the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerrilla group the state fought for more than five decades.
The removals came after De la Espriella called for a ‘cultural war’ on ‘wokeism’. Hundreds of people protested outside the museum, and the modern art museums of Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Medellín and Tolima, along with the Museo Rayo, signed a joint statement defending their professional autonomy.
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