The National Museum of Colombia is the National Museum

National museum

A national museum is a museum maintained by a nation.The following is a list of national museums:-Australia:*Australian National Aviation Museum*Australian National Maritime Museum*, Sydney*Australian War Memorial*Museum Victoria...

 of Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 housing collections on its history

History of Colombia

This article deals with the history of Colombia, a country in South America.-Pre-Colombian period:Approximately 10,000 years BC hunter-gatherer societies existed near present-day Bogotá , and they traded with one another and with cultures living in the Magdalena River valley...

, art

Art of Colombia

Colombian art has 3,500 years of history and covers a wide range of media and styles ranging from Spanish Baroque devotional painting to Quimbaya gold craftwork to the "lyrical americanism" of painter Alejandro Obregón...

, culture

Culture of Colombia

Many aspects of Colombian culture can be traced back to the early culture of Spain of the 16th century and its collision with Colombia's native civilizations . The Spanish brought Catholicism, African slaves, the feudal encomienda system, and a caste system that favored European-born whites...

. Located in Bogotá

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

 downtown, is the biggest and oldest museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. The National Museum of Colombia is a dependancy of the Colombian Ministry of Culture

Ministry of Culture (Colombia)

The Ministry of Culture is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia charged with preserving, promoting, and encouraging the growth, free expression and understanding of the Culture of Colombia in all its multi-ethnic forms.-Ministers:...

.

The National Museum is the oldest in the country and one of the oldest in the continent, built in 1823. Its fortress architecture is built in stone and brick. The plant includes arches, domes and columns forming a sort of Greek cross over which 104 prison cells are distributed, with solid wall façade. The building was first built in 1874 by Thomas Reed

Thomas Reed (architect)

Thomas Reed , was a Danish architect born in the 19th century in the Saint Croix Island ....

. It was known as the Panóptico (inspired on the Panopticon

Panopticon

The Panopticon is a type of building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe all inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched...

 prison) and served as a prison till 1946. In 1948, the building was adapted for National Museum and restored in 1975.
The museum houses a collection of over 20,000 pieces including works of art and objects representing different national history periods. Permanent exhibitions present archeology and ethnography samples from Colombian artefacts dating 10,000 years BC, up to twentieth century indigenous and afro- Colombian art and culture. Founders and New Kingdom of Granada room houses Liberators and other Spanish iconography; the round room exhibits a series of oleos from Colombia painting history.

Paintings by masters Débora Arango

Débora Arango

Débora Arango was a Colombian artist, born in Medellín, Colombia as the daughter of Castor María Arango Díaz and Elvira Pérez. Though she was primarily a painter, Arango also worked in other media, such as ceramics and graphic art...

, Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero Angulo is a Colombian figurative artist. His works feature a figurative style, called by some "Boterismo", which gives them an unmistakable identity...

, Enrique Grau

Enrique Grau

Enrique Grau was a Colombian artist, renowned for his depictions of Amerindian and Afro Colombian figures...

, Ignacio Gomez Jaramillo

Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo

Ignacio Gomez Jaramillo was born in Antioquia. Master Gomez Jaramillo was one of Colombia's most important artists of the 20th century. He was part of the Colombian Muralist Movement along with Santiago Martinez Delgado and Pedro Nel Gómez...

, Santiago Martinez Delgado

Santiago Martínez Delgado

Santiago Martínez Delgado was a Colombian painter, sculptor, art historian and writer. He established a reputation as a prominent muralist during the 1940s and is also known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and woodcarvings....

, Alejandro Obregón

Alejandro Obregón

Daniel Alberto Alejandro María de la Santísima Trinidad Obregón Roses commonly known as Alejandro Obregón was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.-Career:...

, Omar Rayo

Omar Rayo

Omar Rayo was a Colombian painter, sculptor, caricaturist and plastic artist. He won the 1970 Salón de Artistas Colombianos. Rayo worked with abstract geometry primarily employing black, white and red. He was part of the Op Art movement. Rayo's work shows that geometric art is as much a part of...

, Andrés de Santa María

Andrés de Santa María

Andrés de Santa María, was a Colombian painter from Bogotá. His work was mostly impressionist in nature.- Biography :Santa Maria was born in Bogota on December 16 1860...

, and Guillermo Wiedemann are part of the Permanent Collection.

Exhibitions

• Chinese Terracotta Army
  Terracotta Army
  The Terracotta Army or the "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China...
  
  tour with seven full statues and several other objects and parts — 2006