British Museum exhibition examines legend of El Dorado

An exhibition at the British Museum in October will examine the truth behind the legend of El Dorado by displaying objects such as masks made for the mummies of ancestors, ornaments showing humans transformed into bats, jaguars or eagles, and elaborate containers made to hold drugs including coca and peyote. Many of the objects come from the British Museum's own stores, unseen in a lifetime, but more than 200 are borrowed from the Museu del Oro in Bogotá, whose collections include pieces dating back 2,000 years.

However, one of the Colombian museum's greatest treasures will not be coming to London: the Muisca Raft, a tiny gold model showing in intricate detail a new chieftain on the raft being rowed across the lake. It was found by chance by workmen in 1969, not in the lake but in a cave. The only similar model, found in the 19th century, was destroyed in a fire on board a ship in the 1950s as it was traveling on loan to Germany. That disaster will not be repeated: it is forbidden for the newer discovery ever to leave the country.

Maev Kennedy, "British Museum exhibition examines legend of El Dorado" , The Guardian, Thursday 4 July 2013