![]() While El Calvario did have an alarm, it was only activated when the church was closed, and individual paintings were not wired. Security firms were solicited for bids on an alarm system, but in the end, “we never got the money.” “I personally recommended that put in an alarm ,” Torres said. Much of the Central American country’s fine art, like De Merlo’s paintings in El Calvario, originally was commissioned by the Catholic Church, and it is still largely under the church’s purview.īut the theft of the De Merlo paintings was preventable, Torres said. Guatemala hosts vast quantities of cultural patrimony, from ancient Mayan artifacts to the treasures of the colonial Catholic Church. Both halves of the painting were later recovered in Mexico. In 2004, a large painting by Cristóbal de Villalpando was stolen and cut into pieces. In a recent story in the daily Prensa Libre, historian Haroldo Rodas called the theft “intolerable,” while art historian Guillermo Monsanto said the “heart of baroque Guatemala was stolen.”Īrt theft is sadly not uncommon in Guatemala, and the Museum of Colonial Art in La Antigua has targeted before. The stolen works, which depict the Passion of Christ and were commissioned after the 1717 San Miguel earthquakes to adorn the walls of El Calvario, represent a crucial component of Guatemala’s 18th century art. “The paintings are part of our history.” Benjamin Reeves/The Tico Times But for Miguel Torres, an academic fellow at the Guatemalan Academy of Geography and History, “it’s impossible to assign a monetary value to any of the paintings.” 7, two men entered the historic church, tied up groundskeeper Feliciano Chávez hand and foot, and, joined by accomplices, cut the six paintings from their frames, one by one.Įxperts have valued the paintings at about $300,000 each, or $1.8 million total. ![]() ![]() ANTIGUA, Guatemala – Two weeks ago, thieves made off with six paintings by 18th century master Tomás de Merlo from the colonial-era church of El Calvario in La Antigua. ![]()
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