About 20 years ago, I got a private tour of the national cultural archeological museum in Quito, Ecuador. In Ecuador, this is part of their Central Bank. The Central Bank was trying to figure out a way to raise funds to completely modernize their museum, which really is a treasure. When I asked about the Incas, they laughed, and said that we "norteamericanos" always asked about the Incas, but to the people of Ecuador, the Incas are merely a recent chapter in their history. They have whole sections of that museum dedicated to peoples who predate the Incas by 3000 years (!!).
I'd hate to think what would be lost if that building burned down or was destroyed due to not being made sufficiently earthquake-proof. The country is so poor, it hurts, but they had a way that could have been turned into financing for a completely new museum. All the government had to do was to agree to a plan to raise the money, and they HAD the means to do it at no cost to themselves. I know there is an absolute fortune in pre-Columbian art that has been smuggled out of Andean nations in the last century and a half. I saw photos of the inside of the house of a (very rare) rich Ecuadorian who paid excavators all over the country to bring him gold artifacts when found. There was more in the way of gold artifacts there than in the national museum! He has since passed, and I don't know of his collection ever being sold at auction (export licenses would NEVER have been granted), nor being incorporated into the national museum. I REALLY hope his gold sculptures and masks were preserved instead of being melted down, and it pains me to think that their chances of survival are greater if they were smuggled out of the country into the hands of rich overseas collectors.
It was in 2001 when their government first invited me down there. I was asked back there in 2003 to go over the whole plan with the government once again, so I went, talked for an hour with their Economics Minister, who was a reasonable, educated guy, who wanted to move forward. I have lived, and gone to school, in Spain, majored in Spanish, so there was definitely no language problem. Their government has STILL not been able to agree on a version of the plan--or ANY plan--to put into motion. Their museum is, as far as I know, still waiting for their financing.
Each time I went down there, the people from the Central Bank took me on day trips to Otavalo (MUST do on a Saturday) and Cotacachi, which made the trips worth the trek just by themselves, but it pains me to think of the time lost, as well as what will be materially lost if that old building of theirs suddenly burns or collapses.
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