Ancient Art

Honduras has a most amazing history, much of which is only traceable through the examination of artifacts left behind by cultures long forgotten. It was the religious leaders in Spain who insisted on the destruction of all written symbolism, statues and places of worship that make the research into the past so difficult.

Columbus first arrived in The America’s at Honduras, allegedly at a spot within the United Nations Rio Platano Biosphere. There are many indicators that the mountainous region on North Eastern Honduras was active in trade between North and South American Indians. While there are currently very few museums in Honduras which display the art of the ancient ones, there are many households, businesses and loosely organized groups of looters and smugglers that seem to hold the bulk of the smaller items of Honduras’s cultural patrimony.

One of the best legal public displays of artifacts, belongs to the Banco Atlantida with many fine pieces in their main branch building in the capitol. Their security there does not allow the public to take pictures of their displays. The Copan museum now boasts a world class museum facility adjacent to the amazing Copan Ruins and there are a few pieces in the National museum next the Congress in Tegucigalpa. There is also a museum run by the Fasquelle family in San Pedro Sula, and an interesting "museum" located in Trujillo.

Attempting to view pieces from the region of SEPHs’ first film interest has been difficult. We were surprised to find the people who remove, buy, sell, and smuggle contraband artifacts seemed to be more open in displaying their treasures than the officials who protect the nations own cultural patrimony.

The main problem is that the pieces are rendered almost totally valueless to the archaeologist, anthropologist and other historians when the pieces are removed from the setting in which they were found. While SEPH does not, and will never condone removing artifacts of ancient sites, we certainly wish the past artifact outlaws had taken the time to document the exact locations all of the pieces you will see here were taken from. REMEMBER, removing artifacts in Honduras is against the law, and the penalties for such are severe.

In exchange for confidentiality, many people of Honduras have allowed SEPH members to photograph their collections and had no objections to us filming them for Television. Many were offered for sale. One person we met, regularly used to smuggle pieces from a Copan area ring back to an auction house in Texas. This ring has been around for many years and is most likely still active today. All of the folks that we met were willing to have their artifacts filmed for the good of Honduras, and only a couple said they would require financial retribution for the right to film their items for public broadcast.

One location we visited was literally stuffed full of Jade and Marble artifacts. They had whole garages full of statues of ancient deities. All of the cabinets in the house held dozens of ceremonial knifes and walk-in closets full of polychrome pottery. They wanted to sell the entire collection for a mere $30,000 dollars, which I’m sure would be a tiny fraction of it’s worth. While SEPH will never be a party to any transaction regarding stolen art, we would like to see more history on display for the public. If there are any philanthropists who would be willing to donate this collection to a HONDURAN museum we would like to hear from you. This massive collection includes 48 glyphs, which very well may be priceless with the knowledge they hold.