The story of Father Crespi is a mysterious and controversial account of a priest in Ecuador involving claims of unknown civilizations, strange golden artifacts, a subterranean cave system containing a metallic library, depictions of strange figures connecting America to Sumeria, symbols depicting an unknown language, evidence of extra-terrestrial contact, and a Vatican conspiracy involving thousands of missing artifacts. But how much of the story is true? Ancient Origins set out to find the answers and was given exclusive access by the Central Bank of Ecuador to the private artifact collection of Father Crespi, tucked away in hidden vaults and storerooms, including the controversial carved metal plates, which had not been seen or photographed for decades.

Google the name ‘Father Crespi’ today and you will find dozens of websites telling the bizarre story of a humble priest and his connection with a mysterious collection of artifacts. Admittedly, Ancient Origins is included among those that have highlighted the strange story of Crespi and his missing artifacts. However, when myself and Dr Ioannis Syrigos of Ancient Origins moved to Cuenca, Ecuador, and were visited by researchers Hugh Newman, founder of Megalithomania.co.uk, and Jim Vieira, who has starred on several History Channel programs, there was an opportunity to explore the account in more depth and find out what is really behind the story of Father Crespi.

From Left: Hugh Newman, Jim Vieira, and Dr Ioannis Syrigos at the Crespi Museum in the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Cuenca, Ecuador.

The Man Behind the Mystery

Father Carlos Crespi Croci was a Salesian monk who was born in Italy in 1891. He studied anthropology at the University of Milan before becoming a priest. In 1923, he was assigned to the small Andean city of Cuenca in Ecuador to work among the indigenous people. It was here that he devoted 59 years of his life to charitable work until his death in 1982.

Father Crespi is known for his multitude of talents – he was an educator, anthropologist, botanist, artist, explorer, cinematographer, and musician – as well as his intense humanitarian efforts in Ecuador, in which he set up an orphanage and educational facilities, assisted the impoverished, gave food and money handouts, and cared deeply for the people. Walking around the city of Cuenca, it is clear that Crespi won the hearts of the people – today a statue of him helping a young child remains in the square in front of the church of Maria Auxiliadora, and local people old enough to have known him share stories about his intense charitable efforts. The City of Cuenca has been working with the Vatican for years to have Father Crespi recognized as a Saint.

Photograph of Father Crespi with some local children. Crespi Museum in the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

However, it was not only the people of Cuenca that he helped. Father Crespi also had a deep personal interest in the numerous tribes of indigenous people throughout Ecuador and sought to learn about their culture and traditions, as well as to offer assistance wherever possible. People speak of his dedication to a life of voluntary poverty, sometimes sleeping on the floors of small huts belonging to indigenous people, with only a single blanket.

The clip below was filmed by Father Crespi in 1927 and is the first film of Shuar community life and culture ever made.

The Crespi Collection

It was due to the dedication of Father Crespi to the people that they began to bring him artifacts as offers of thanks. These artifacts came from all corners of the country and beyond, and were representative of the works of almost all the indigenous cultures of Ecuador. Other objects, including numerous metallic carved plates, were thought to be modern-day carvings or replicas of ancient artifacts, though Crespi always showed great gratitude no matter the value of the gift. Not wanting to shame impoverished families by giving them money handouts for nothing, Crespi began to pay some of the people for the objects they brought him. Philip Coppens explains:

“When poor people brought him these plates or other artifacts that the local people knew he collected, he made sure they were rewarded for their efforts. He knew several local families were poor but that pride prevented them from asking for money, unless it was as payment for something. And hence, more and more metal plates found their way to the priest. Some, Crespi was sure, were fakes – and they were often the crudest executed.”

Over time, Father Crespi acquired more than 50,000 objects, many of which were kept in the courtyard of the church Maria Auxiliadora until the Vatican gave him permission to start a museum to house the collection. Unfortunately, many of the artifacts were destroyed in a fire in 1962. After Father Crespi passed away, the remaining artifacts were removed and little trace of them remained. Various claims emerged as to what happened to the artifacts that survived the fire – some say they were stored in the cellar archive of Maria Auxiliadora, others say they were sold to private collectors, or that they were shipped off to the Vatican. For decades, there was little known or seen of Crespi’s precious artifacts.

Father Crespi with a metallic artifact at the church of Maria Auxiliadora ( bilbiotecapleyades)

‘Gold of the Gods’

While thousands of Crespi’s artifacts are unremarkable in that they can be clearly classified according to their age and the indigenous culture they belong to, there remained a small subset of items that sparked intense controversy.

Some of the artifacts are Babylonian in style, others appear to have been carved in gold with strange motifs and symbols that do not resemble objects from any South American culture. Some of the gold plates appear to show a type of ancient writing, although as far as we are aware, none of them were identified and translated.

A subset of the more controversial artifacts from Crespi’s collection, photographed by J Golden Barton, who visited Father Crespi in the 1970s. (Courtesy of Glen W. Chapman )

Richard Wingate, a Florida based explorer and writer visited Father Crespi during the mid- to late-1970’s and photographed the extensive artifact collection. He said: “In a dusty, cramped shed on the side porch of the Church of Maria Auxiliadora in Cuenca, Ecuador, lies the most valuable archaeological treasure on earth. More than one million dollars’ worth of dazzling gold is cached here, and much silver, yet the hard money value of this forgotten hoard is not its principal worth. There are ancient artifacts identified as Assyrian, Egyptian, Chinese, and African so perfect in workmanship and beauty that any museum director would regard them as first-class acquisitions. Since this treasure is the strangest collection of ancient archaeological objects in existence, its value lies in the historical questions it poses, and demands answers to. Yet it is unknown to historians and deliberately neglected in the journals of orthodox archaeology”. [Compiled by Glen W Chapman , 1998].

A video showing Father Crespi with the more controversial artifacts can be viewed below. Crespi himself says that those artifacts did not come from Ecuador but from Babylon.

In 1973, Swiss ‘ancient astronaut author’ Eric von Däniken launched his sensational book ‘ Gold of the Gods ’, claiming that Juan Moricz, an aristocratic Argentinian-Hungarian entrepreneur, discovered a series of tunnels in the Tayos Caves of Ecuador that contained a "Metal Library" and numerous golden artifacts and that it was these objects that were given to Crespi, forming the controversial part of his collection. Furthermore, Däniken claimed the artifacts had been created by a lost civilization with help from extraterrestrial beings. Father Crespi and the story of his artifacts shot to fame.

According to Moricz and Däniken, the so-called Metallic Library consisted of thousands of books made with metallic pages, each page engraved on one side with symbols, geometric designs and inscriptions. So whatever happened to these mysterious metallic books and pages and were they authentic? We planned to find out.

Inside Tayos cave. ( Wikipedia)

Searching for the Truth

In order to unravel the facts behind Father Crespi and his missing artifacts, our first stop was the Maria Auxiliadora church, where Crespi spent much of his life dedicated to religion and charity. We were welcomed by the acting priest, Padre Javier Herrán, also Rector of the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana in Cuenca. Padre Javier had known Father Crespi personally and was able to tell us about his life and dedication to the people of Ecuador. He insisted that none of Crespi’s collection had remained at Maria Auxiliadora after the fire, but instead was purchased by the Central Bank of Ecuador. He set up a meeting for us with Dr. Luis Alvarez, Editor General of the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, who could tell us more.

Padre Javier Herrán (left) and Dr. Luis Alvarez (right) welcomed us at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana to tell the story of Father Crespi and his artifacts.

Dr. Alvarez is an expert about Father Crespi and took us to a small museum in the University grounds that contained some of Crespi’s personal possessions. He told us that Crespi’s collection was accumulated as a result of his generous work for the people of Ecuador and that Däniken’s account was entirely false. According to Dr. Alvarez, Crespi himself was shocked when he heard claims about the Tayos Caves and stories of lost civilizations and extraterrestrials. Dr Alvarez was very keen to separate Father Crespi from what he said were sensational stories and mistaken facts, and told us he could take us himself to see the collection – we were thrilled! The collection had not been seen or photographed for decades and now we would have the chance to see it for ourselves.

Dr. Alvarez made arrangements for the Central Bank of Ecuador to open up its private museum collection for us to view. He gathered a team of experts, including archaeologists, anthropologists, and even police escorts to take us through the storage rooms containing Crespi’s precious collection. Rows upon rows containing thousands of artifacts awaited us. They had been carefully catalogued according to their age and the culture they had belonged to – figurines, ceremonial seats, weapons, stone carvings, ceramics, jewelry, ancient calculation systems, religious icons, and even elongated skulls and shrunken human heads formed part of Crespi’s impressive collection, but no metallic plates.

Thousands of artifacts from Father Crespi’s collection in the storage vaults of the Central Bank of Ecuador. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

Hundreds of figurines from Father Crespi’s collection. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

An ancient carving used for calculations and recording numbers, Father Crespi’s collection. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

An elongated skull from Father Crespi’s collection. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

Unusual zoomorphic head from Father Crespi’s collection. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

Shrunken human heads in Father Crespi’s collection. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

Locating the Metallic Library

When we enquired about the metallic plates we were told they were simply considered as junk and that the Central Bank refused to purchase them because they were proven to be fake. We wanted to see for ourselves. Dr Alvarez arranged for a police escort to take us to the metallic plates. They were located at the opposite end of the building complex in a locked storage area of a dilapidated old building. We were shocked – the metallic plates and artifacts were strewn all over the floor, thrown in cardboard boxes, and gathered in miscellaneous piles. It was clear that no value was ascribed to these plates.

Carved metallic plates from Father Crespi’s collection strewn on the floor in a dilapidated old building. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

The metallic plates were clearly not made of gold but a soft and pliable metal that more closely resembled aluminium. The carvings were crude and in some cases infantile. It is true that many of them contained unusual figurines and bizarre scenes, but they did not resemble anything other than modern-day carvings in cheap metal sheets. Was this really the Metallic Library that Däniken had sensationally written about in ‘Gold of the Gods’?

Some of the carvings are crude and simplistic, almost infantile. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

Jim Vieira examining one of the metallic plates that had been tossed in a corner in an old storage room. Credit: Ancient-Origisn.net

Some of the metallic carvings were more complex, depicting strange figures, pyramids, suns, and geometric designs, just as Däniken had reported, but they still looked like little more than modern-day carvings on cheap metal. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net

Truth Revealed and Unanswered Questions

Our investigation enabled us to verify the following facts:

Father Crespi’s collection is not missing but was purchased by the Central Bank of Ecuador and is currently stored in their museum vaults.

The majority of Crespi’s collection consists of authentic and valuable artifacts gathered from around Ecuador.

The so-called Metallic Library mentioned by Däniken is nothing more than modern-day carvings on cheap metal.

But… there still remains a number of unanswered questions – where are the artifacts that were photographed and filmed in the 1970s consisting of gold carvings, hieroglyphs, and Sumerian figures? Why aren’t they anywhere to be seen in the Central Bank of Ecuador’s storage rooms? Were they authentic? And if so, what is their significance? No one at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Church of Maria Auxiliadora or the Central Bank Museum were able to answer these questions.

While the story of Father Crespi has clearly been sensationalized, dramatized, and falsified over the decades, there does remain a genuine mystery about a small number of his artifacts and as yet, we are no closer to finding the answers.

Featured image: Left: Father Crespi holding a metallic artifact that appears to contain a series of hieroglyphs. ( Source). Right: Photographs of Crespi’s so-called ‘Metallic Library’. Credit: Ancient-Origins.net.

By April Holloway