Beyond El Dorado: Power and gold in ancient Colombia

Last week’s staff breakfast was presented by Project Curator, Elisenda Vila Llonch who gave us an introduction to the themes and concepts behind the new exhibition at the BM; Beyond El Dorado: Power and gold in ancient Colombia.Elisenda explained that El Dorado, literally meaning, ‘the golden one’, was a myth which imagined El Dorado as a city of gold, or sometimes as a man covered in powdered gold. The exhibition seeks to go beyond this myth to present the ancient civilisations of Colombia, and to explain the uses and significance of gold, which had great symbolic meaning in pre-Hispanic Colombia.

The exhibition features over 200 fascinating objects from Museo del Oro, Bogotá, many of which are being displayed in the UK for the first time, and around 100 from the British Museum’s collection.

The exhibition runs from 17 October 2013 to 23 March 2014. For more information on the exhibition please click here.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/beyond_el_dorado/about.aspx