Dinner is served with sea bream mousseline with vol-au-vent, wild rice with almonds or even duck supreme. You drink a Saint Michel, a Charles Krug or a Schramsberg. Thus, between classes, the President of the United States, Gerald Ford, received the kings of Spain, Juan Carlos I and Sofia, at the White House, where they probably discussed one of the great events of the time: the exhibition Columbus and his times that in 1976, the bicentenary of the independence of the United States was crowned in Washington with a parchment, one of the key elements of which is the coat of arms of the discoverer. It dates from 1493. It contains the first heraldic image of what we call America today, as well as the signatures of the Catholic Monarchs. And over the years, Spain risks losing it: in 2018 it was sold at auction for more than a million, which led the Ministry of Culture to declare it inexportable and encourage the Madrid government to protect it as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), because it belongs to a private collection located in its territory, according to documentation consulted by EL PAÍS. It was an operation aimed at defending “an element of singular importance for the Spanish historical heritage”.
The alarm had already been sounded in 2014. “The parchment needs urgent restoration (…)”, we read in a report from the Community of Madrid, which is sending its experts to examine the royal provision granted by the coat of arms in the private collection that houses it. “It is in a terrible state of conservation: it presents serious readability problems due to folds and stains and also because the ink in certain parts of the document is discolored,” we add. “The signatures of the Catholic Monarchs, due to the poor conditions in which the document is found, are barely visible,” it says.
The document is the trace of a legendary moment. On March 15, 1493, Columbus landed at Palos and headed for Barcelona, in accordance with the instructions sent to him by the kings. Received in audience, he recounts his journey. That he arrived in India and came back to tell the story. That there are great riches to be won. And the indigenous peoples who inhabit these territories. A new world begins to be described by Columbus, and through him it appears for the first time represented as an image on a polychrome coat of arms, granted between May and June by the kings through this arrangement on parchment of sheep vellum measuring 275 x 435 millimeters with a stem 43 millimeters wide.
21st century. More than 500 years later, the document is sandwiched between two sheets of glass and framed in humble wood so it can be viewed from both sides. This is how the heirs of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea keep it in 2014. This is not ideal. “State of conservation: Poor”, conclude the experts from the General Directorate of Regional Heritage.
It is imperative to protect the document, which is why the BIC declaration process begins. But time passes and nothing happens. Inexplicably, Madrid let the file expire, without a government spokesperson now specifying the reason. And it’s a risk: the document ends up in the safe of an auction house at the end of 2018.
This means Spain could lose control of a document of incalculable historical value. The Ministry of Culture reacts by declaring the good inexportable, emphasizing that the veto affects the countries of the European Union. After the auction was abandoned at the beginning of 2019, it asked Madrid to reactivate the process of converting the document into BIC. Start again. New control. And surprise: the experts sent by Madrid discover that the parchment was restored before the declaration as BIC, which will not arrive until 2023.
“The parchment is in better condition. Since it was hydrated, the support has been reinstated and the folds and fine lines that it presented are now less marked due to the treatment to which it was subjected,” they analyze. “Moreover, it is not between two sheets of glass and framed, but is in a neutral PH cardboard folder designed ad hoc and adapted to the characteristics of the document,” they add. “The parchment is protected in a folder with folding covers which resembles conservation cardboard (probably with alkaline reserve)”, they continue. Inside the folder, the document is mounted inside a mat, secured with strips of mylar (polyester) and protected on top with a sheet of mylar.”
In this way, the conservation status changes from “bad” to “normal”. That is to say, the care of the restorers guarantees that the document regains some of its former splendor. And it opens a window onto a world that no longer exists.
In the central part of the text of the provision, the main space is reserved for the coat of arms. This is divided into five parts. At the top right is a golden castle (for the Kingdom of Castile) and at the top left is a lion (for the Kingdom of León). At the bottom right is iconography of the islands and a landmass representing the islands and continent of the New World, in gold over sea waves. Meanwhile, the lower left corner splits in two. In the upper part are five golden anchors for the Admiralty and below the arms shown in red on a gold background with a blue band.
This is the coat of arms of Columbus, who since his declaration as BIC decided, for example, to participate in the exhibition Letters from Columbuswhich took place at the Liria Palace until February 2025.
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