A new exhibit titled “Reuniting the Surigao Treasure” combines artifacts from two important precolonial gold collections at the Ayala Museum.
This showcase brings together over 1,000 gold items and highlights the Philippines’ rich artistic heritage.
Curated by former Ayala Museum director Dr. Florina Capistrano-Baker, the showcase brings to the Philippines a precolonial gold exhibit larger than another display, the successful joint exhibit in 2015 at the Asia Society Museum in New York City co-curated by Capistrano-Baker and Dr. Adriana Proser.
Mariles Gustilo, senior director of the museum, said in her remarks at the launch of the exhibition that for the first time in the Philippines, these once-dispersed gold objects have finally come together in one.
Because of the collective effort between Ayala Museum and the BSP, “Filipinos young and old alike can visit, revisit, and marvel at these breathtaking objects, inspiring and reminding us of our country’s glorious precolonial past and what it says about us as a people,” Gustilo also said.
A number of gold artifacts from both the Ayala Museum and the BSP’s collections can be traced back to the Surigao Treasure.
The exhibition reunites objects that would tell a more complete story together, such as a massive four-kilogram gold chain, believed to be a Hindu upavita, with its missing finial.
Intricately woven gold waistbands are also reunited, showcasing the power and opulence of the ancient kingdom of Butuan.
Another example is the reunion of a gold balance scale with a gold weighing scale pan, hinting at an advanced trading culture.
Other remarkable objects include a long gold chain, gold bangles set with gemstones, and gold finials.
“To see the collections is also to be grateful that institutions like Ayala Museum and the BSP not only want to protect this legacy but also work together to share them with Filipinos and the world,” said BSP governor Eli Remolona, Jr.
“The coming together of Ayala Museum’s and BSP’s gold collections represents another chapter of the great precolonial heritage of the Philippines,” stated Tony Lambino, president of Ayala Foundation, adding that “the collection (in this) exhibition is a testament to the ingenuity and artistry of the Filipino that has not been lost and is in fact still very evident today in all areas of our society,” Lambino added.
“Reuniting the Surigao Treasure” opened to the public on May 17, and will run until 2027.
