# Crown of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Crown of the Andes > Unidentified goldsmiths, Popayan and viceroyalty of New Granada - 16th century (cross); c. 1660 (diadem); c. 1770 (arches) > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/colonial-new-granada-goldsmiths/crown-of-the-andes-met/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-15 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Unidentified goldsmiths, Popayan and viceroyalty of New Granada - **Date:** 16th century (cross); c. 1660 (diadem); c. 1770 (arches) - **Medium:** Gold, repousse and chased, set with emeralds - **Dimensions:** 34.3 cm (13 1/2 in) high; 33.4 cm (13 1/4 in) body diameter; weight approximately 2.17-2.4 kg - **Object type:** Goldsmith's work - **Period:** Colonial Spanish South America, viceroyalty of New Granada - **Current location:** Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary A closed, arched crown of gold set with roughly 450 Colombian emeralds, made in Popayan not as a single commission but in at least two and probably three separate campaigns of work between the 16th and 18th centuries, to be placed on a statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception carried in that city's Holy Week processions for close to three hundred years.In 1936, after a 1914 papal permission to sell that was controversial with part of the Popayan congregation, the crown left Colombia for a Chicago-led American syndicate that intended to break it up and sell the stones individually. It did not break up. It passed through a 1963 Sotheby's sale, a failed 1995 Christie's sale, and the private hands of the jeweler Oscar Heyman and his daughter Alice Heyman before the Metropolitan Museum acquired it in December 2015.The gold is Colombian river gold worked under Spanish colonial rule; the emeralds are substantially from the Muzo deposit, whose 16th and 17th century extraction under forced indigenous and enslaved labour is documented by the historian Kris Lane and, earlier, by the mining engineer H. A. Schumacher's 1875 study of the original Spanish sources -- for the deposit generally, not for these specific stones, which no source consulted traces to a named group of labourers. A Colombian cultural-heritage body has publicly argued the crown belongs in Popayan, where it was made and used, not in New York; the Met's own published materials describe the 2015 acquisition as legal but do not engage the argument. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **16th century-c. 1660** Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception (La Cofradia de la Inmaculada Concepcion), Popayan Cathedral `[disputed]` (origin (cross, then diadem)) The Met's own catalogue dates the diadem to circa 1660; a technical examination by the jewellery historian Christopher Hartop in 1995 additionally dated a separate cross element to the 16th century, describing the object as a composite of parts rather than a single commission. The popular legend of a single 1590s commission made in thanksgiving for deliverance from smallpox is not supported by either the Met's dating or Hartop's reading and is recorded here as legend, not fact. - **c. 1770-1914** Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, Popayan Cathedral `[documented]` (addition of arches; continuous devotional use) Arches added circa 1770 per the Met's catalogue dating. The completed crown was then used continuously in Popayan's Holy Week celebrations for approximately three centuries until the sale process began. - **1914-1936** Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, seeking a buyer `[documented]` (papal sale permission granted, no buyer found for 22 years) Pope Pius X granted permission to sell the crown in 1914 to fund charitable works reported as a hospital, orphanage and home for the elderly; the decision was reported as controversial within parts of the Popayan church community. No buyer was secured until 1936. - **1936-1963** American investment syndicate led by Warren J. Piper, Chicago `[documented]` (purchase from the Confraternity) Piper's syndicate purchased the crown for a reported 125,000 US dollars, reportedly intending to melt it down and sell the emeralds individually; this did not happen. The crown was instead exhibited at Detroit (1937), the New York World's Fair (1939), and the Royal Ontario Museum (1959). - **1963-1995** Anonymous buyer, via the Asscher Diamond Company, Amsterdam `[disputed]` (sale at Sotheby's, London) Sold at Sotheby's London in 1963 to the Asscher Diamond Company acting for an undisclosed buyer, reportedly for 55,000 pounds. The identity of the underlying purchaser is not documented in any source consulted; graded disputed/unknown rather than documented for that reason, though the auction house, intermediary and reported price are documented. - **1995-2015** Oscar Heyman, then his daughter Alice Heyman `[disputed]` (failed Christie's consignment; subsequent private ownership; 2009-2010 loan to Indianapolis) Consigned to Christie's, New York, in 1995 with a reported reserve of approximately 3 million US dollars; did not sell. Christopher Hartop examined the crown during this consignment and proposed his three-campaign dating. The jeweler Oscar Heyman subsequently acquired the crown and gave it to his daughter Alice Heyman; neither the date nor terms of either transfer are published in any source consulted. Lent to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for the exhibition Sacred Spain, October 2009-January 2010. - **2015-present** Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York `[documented]` (purchase) Acquired December 2015, accession number 2015.437, credit line Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Acquisitions Fund and Mary Trumbull Adams Fund. Price not published by the Met in any source consulted; a 2.5 million US dollar figure attributed to Bloomberg News reporting circulates but is unconfirmed against a primary Met document. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **1963** Sotheby's, - Estimate: not stated in sources consulted - Hammer: GBP 55,000 (reported; hammer vs. total not separated in any source consulted) - With premium: not specified in sources consulted - Sold to the Asscher Diamond Company acting for an anonymous buyer. Whether the reported 55,000 pounds is hammer price or a total including any premium is not distinguished in the sources consulted. - **1995-09-19** Christie's, - Estimate: Reserve reported at approximately USD 3,000,000 - Hammer: Did not sell - With premium: n/a - Consigned for sale in New York; failed to meet reserve and was withdrawn. Christopher Hartop's technical examination of the crown took place in connection with this consignment. Contemporary Spanish-language coverage (El Pais, 19 September 1995) separately reported the sale process and the crown's physical statistics. ## Open questions - What did the Met pay in 2015? The museum's own materials do not publish a figure; a 2.5 million US dollar figure attributed to Bloomberg News reporting circulates in later commentary but was not confirmed against a primary Met document in this research. - Who was the anonymous buyer behind the Asscher Diamond Company's purchase at the 1963 Sotheby's sale? Not disclosed in any source consulted. - Exactly when, and on what terms, did the crown pass from Christie's failed 1995 consignment into Oscar Heyman's ownership, and then to Alice Heyman? No date or terms are published in any source consulted. - Does the statue in Popayan Cathedral that the crown was originally made for still exist, and if so, does it now wear a replacement or replica crown for continued devotional use? Not addressed in any source consulted. - Has the Metropolitan Museum published its own post-acquisition technical and conservation study of the crown, and does it confirm, extend or revise Christopher Hartop's three-campaign dating? The museum's conservation essay on the object could not be fetched during this research; it should be checked directly. - Has the Colombian government or any Colombian institution made a formal, dated repatriation demand, legal claim or export-law argument specifically addressed to the Metropolitan Museum since the 2015 acquisition, as distinct from the general cultural-patrimony argument published in 2006? No such formal action was located in any source consulted. - Can any specific stone in the crown be traced to a documented individual labourer, mine record or shipment, as against the general documented history of forced and enslaved labour at Muzo? No source consulted makes that stone-level connection. ## Sources - [1] Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection catalogue entry, 'Crown of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Crown of the Andes,' accession 2015.437. Cited via corroborating secondary sources and a Wikimedia Commons file page carrying the Met's own credit-line metadata; the Met's own page returned repeated HTTP 429 errors during direct research and should be checked directly by an editor. - [2] Wikimedia Commons, file description page for 'Crown of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Crown of the Andes MET DP365522.jpg,' carrying Met credit line, accession number, materials and CC0 licence metadata. - [3] Antiques and The Arts Weekly, 'Metropolitan Museum Acquires Lavish Crown Of The Andes.' - [4] New York Latin Culture Magazine, 'The Crown of the Andes is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.' - [5] TheArtWolf, 'The Crown of the Andes acquired by the Metropolitan Museum.' - [6] Wikipedia, 'Crown of the Andes,' consolidating Christopher Hartop's 1995 dating analysis (via The Independent on Sunday, 18 June 1995, not independently fetched), the Warren Piper 1936 sale, the 1963 Sotheby's sale, and the Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo repatriation citation. Tertiary source; flagged for replacement with the Independent on Sunday article and the Met's primary catalogue entry. - [7] The City Paper Bogota, 'Crown of the Andes sold on the cheap?' - [8] Scottsdale Mint, '$2.9M Golden Andes Crown's 400-Year Secret: The Emperor's Stolen Emerald.' - [9] Wikipedia, 'La Lechuga,' for the comparandum monstrance by Jose de Galaz, its Muzo emerald content, and its 1985 purchase by the Bank of the Republic of Colombia. Tertiary source; flagged for replacement with the Banco de la Republica's own catalogue record. - [10] Kris Lane, Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), reviewed by Maria Jose Afanador-Llach, Not Even Past (University of Texas at Austin, Department of History), for the documented history of forced indigenous and enslaved labour at the Muzo emerald deposit. - [11] Pala International, 'The Emerald Deposits of Muzo, Colombia,' summarising H. A. Schumacher's 1875 historical study of Spanish colonial sources (including the chronicles of Fray Pedro Simon and Lucas Fernandez de Piedrahita) on forced labour and depopulation at Muzo under colonial mining administration. - [12] Wikipedia, 'Immaculate Conception,' for the standard Marian iconography (twelve stars, crescent moon, serpent, Woman of the Apocalypse of Revelation 12) formalised by Francisco Pacheco in 1649 under Counter-Reformation doctrine. Tertiary source, cited for general established iconographic convention rather than any object-specific claim. - [13] Humanities LibreTexts, mirror of Smarthistory, 'Crown of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception,' for corroboration of the Met's two-campaign dating and the repatriation debate framing. The original Smarthistory page returned an HTTP 403 error during direct research. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. 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