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Recovered Hoard · Recovered (disputed)

The Quimbaya Treasure

Classical period · found 1890s, Middle Cauca valley, Quindío, Colombia
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Quimbaya Treasure: still unexplained.

122 pieces of the finest pre-Columbian goldwork

The law of this ground: Held at the Museo de América, Madrid; repatriation requested by Colombia.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
122 pieces of the finest pre-Columbian goldwork
The account

From two tombs in the Cauca valley came the masterwork of the Quimbaya goldsmiths, 122 pieces of nose-rings, pendants, and the famous lime-flasks called poporos, cast by a lost-wax skill few cultures ever matched. Colombia gave the hoard to Spain in 1893; it sits in Madrid still, and Colombia has formally asked for it home.

How it was found
  • Recovered from Colombian tombs in the 1890s; the Colombian government gave 122 of the finest gold pieces to Spain in 1893, where they remain to this day, at the center of a repatriation fight.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 4.530°, -75.680° (approx.) View on the Map