Museo de Arte Colonial

The Colonial Museum of Bogotá ( Colombia ) was inaugurated on August 6, 1942 under the background of the President of the Republic Eduardo Santos Montejo and his education minister Germán Arciniegas. Its headquarters is the former Casa de las Aulas, a 17th-century building that was the headquarters of the Maximum Society of the Society of Jesus, now Javeriana University and Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé, in Bogotá. The pieces initially exhibited in the Colonial Museum came mostly from the private collections owned by Bogota's high society in the first half of the 20th century. These collections had been formed due to the process of confiscation of ecclesiastical goods initiated by Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera around 1861. The paintings expropriated from the Church were handed over to individuals and some of these in turn were given to different museums as a donation. These initial collections have been gradually complemented by new works received by donation or acquired. Currently the museum has 1577 pieces among which you can find easel painting, textiles, sculpture, furniture, silverware, numismatics, prints and manuscripts. It should be noted that the museum houses the largest existing collection of works by the neo-Granada colonial painter Gregorio Vásquez de Arce and Ceballos, which includes easel painting and a complete series of the drawings attributed to it.