The Museo de Arte Colonial in Antigua, Guatemala, will reopen after a court-ordered raid shut it down in December 2025, forcing the relocation of its assortment of 287 colonial-era works. After months of negotiations, Guatemala’s Ministry of Tradition and Sports activities (MCD) regained management of the venue on 11 August. But an extended highway stays forward, together with restoring the 18th-century complicated and its fragile artistic endeavors. A reopening date has but to be introduced.
The museum first opened in 1936 within the former Universidad de San Carlos, that includes colonial work and sculptures together with works by the artists Tomás de Merlo (1694-1739) and Cristóbal de Villalpando (1649-1714).
“Guatemalan sculpture has distinctive qualities and was among the many finest identified within the West Indies for hundreds of years,” Johann Melchor, Antigua’s city-designated chronicler and a Guatemalan colonial artwork professional, tells The Artwork Newspaper. The positioning, nevertheless, has all the time confronted conservation points. “The museum suffered from 50 years of neglect, and lots of items wanted restoration,” says Melchor, stressing the establishment’s relevance to town’s cultural cloth.
The town of Antigua owns the location, whereas the MCD had an working settlement legitimate till 2032. The court docket’s determination late final yr relied on a report by the Consejo Nacional para la Protección de la Antigua Guatemala (CNPAG), requested by Guatemala’s Public Ministry in Could 2025, following an undisclosed grievance. The report, nevertheless, famous that solely ten works have been in pressing want of restoration and really useful this be carried out in situ. Regardless of objections, most works have been relocated to the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura in Guatemala Metropolis in a hasty two-week operation.
Concern grew over six large-scale work, 5 by Merlo, which remained on the museum due to their fragility and have been left unsupervised. In the end, on 25 February, the work have been carried on foot to Antigua’s Museo de Arte de Guatemala, 200m away.
“The keys are again, and we are going to work laborious in order that the museum is again, too—and with it, part of our historical past will come alive once more,” stated tradition minister Luis Méndez Salinas at a 13 August inspection, noting that evaluations are ongoing to outline subsequent steps. New museography and momentary exhibition areas are deliberate. However the assortment’s return can be gradual, as many works nonetheless require restoration and stay in several venues.
The works’ eventual return can be complicated. “We carried out a preliminary evaluation of the gathering,” says Javier Quiñónez, the CNPAG’s Antigua conservator. “However we ignored the works’ present state and whether or not they have been broken by altering the circumstances through which they have been saved for 50 years or throughout their switch.” He provides that it is very important consider the works’ situation and make clear the venue’s authorized standing.
The bodily museum house can be a priority. “The restoration of the gathering have to be addressed in parallel with that of the constructing,” says Jesús A. Castillo R., the CNPAG’s chief of immovable heritage restoration. He provides that preliminary inspections discovered peeling paint, grime and humidity within the works—all of which requires particular person evaluation. “The museum’s architectural and environmental circumstances are decisive in guaranteeing their conservation,” Castillo says.
Melchor, Quiñónez and Castillo all stress that funding and a long-term plan for the venue are paramount. “We hope there are higher days forward for the museum,” Melchor says.
