International • • • 🌿 Progressive

Sala de museo con pedestales vacíos y obras cubiertas con telas mientras un trabajador hace inventario con una carpeta
Sala del museo con piezas cubiertas y pedestales vacíos durante un inventario, imagen alusiva al traslado de obras del Museo Nacional. · Erick Prometeo Media

JEP seeks information on works removed from National Museum

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace asked the Ministry of Culture and the National Museum for complete information and an inventory on the transfer and removal…

--- The context --- The National Museum preserves works and exhibition content linked to the internal armed conflict, forced disappearance and the memory of victims, a sensitive collection gathering testimonies, personal objects and accounts contributed by relatives and victims organizations. In recent days, part of those works was transferred or removed from the galleries, a decision that opened an institutional discussion about how historical memory content should be documented and protected. --- The facts --- The Special Jurisdiction for Peace sent an official communication to the Ministry of Culture and the National Museum requesting complete information about the transfer and removal of the pieces, together with the documentation behind the measure and a detailed inventory. The request, signed by magistrate Raúl Eduardo Sánchez of the Section for Absence of Recognition, asks for the provisional number of pieces, objects, reproductions, panels and texts that were removed, replaced, concealed or relocated, and the people and offices that authorized or carried out the interventions. The communication also requests the current location and custody of the elements, inventory and movement records, photographs from before and after, technical and legal opinions, institutional communications and documents supporting the decisions adopted. --- The positions --- The jurisdiction states that its request seeks to establish whether the action could have affected the rights to truth, memory, symbolic reparation and guarantees of non-repetition of victims of forced disappearance and their relatives, a purpose the Government can address by providing the available documentation on file. The Section itself acknowledged that each museum is independent to carry out transfers or changes of works when it considers it appropriate, while noting that, when testimonies and objects of victims are involved, those decisions should rest on sufficient documentation, verifiable criteria and guarantees protecting their rights. --- What remains unknown --- The complete inventory of the pieces involved is not yet known, nor is the public detail of their current location and custody, information that the requested documentation should help establish precisely in coming days. --- Unanswered questions --- How many pieces, panels and texts were removed, replaced or relocated in total according to the official inventory? Was there a prior dialogue with the communities and the contributors of the pieces before the works were transferred? What are the current conservation conditions and what access or reinstatement alternatives have been evaluated? --- EPM analysis --- The process is following predictable institutional channels: a jurisdiction requests documented information, the Ministry gathers support for its museum decision, and a court has provisionally suspended the transfer since October 19 while it decides the protection action filed by several artistic collectives. The judge ordered, in general terms, refraining from destroying, transferring, deaccessioning, returning to third parties or altering the pieces while the action is decided, and from intervening in other works without administrative acts justifying such decisions. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, this case is best resolved with documents on the table rather than with polemics: the request from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace is an information procedure within institutional channels, and the Government of Abelardo De La Espriella has the opportunity to respond with documentary transparency, complete inventories and verifiable technical support. If every piece is identified, located and protected while the court decides the merits, the memory of the victims is safeguarded and museum independence is preserved as well.
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