A realized
dream or the
beginning of a dream
Didi Costa, wife of Don Aldo,
doctor in pharmacy, graduated in Bologna, Italy, in the oldest university
of the world, mother of two children (Michele and Paolo), both electronics
engineers with masters, graduated in Miami, living in this small city with
the children studying abroad, having free time she dedicated herself to
the search of the local crafts (expression of culture), but instead she
found amber. She got so passionate that her love became a commercial
activity and at the same time was collecting the most important pieces.
She was immersed in the charming world and the knowledge of amber: an
endless journey, because once immersed in the beauty and the history, she
herself became entangled in this fossilized resin, that bewitches and
captures so one never dares to leave it.
Dominican people did not give
much value to the stone found in creeks and within the earth. In the
countryside they used it as a natural pesticide to repel mosquitoes,
because of its strong and rough perfume. Nowadays, there is no Dominican
woman who does not have amber like jewelry. People from the mines, who
commercialized amber, came to Puerto Plata full of merchandise to sell. I
began to buy everything and among the pile of amber stones there were
others with extremely interesting and truly valuable inclusions, of
scientific interest and of aesthetic value.
There was a group of geologists
from Germany who along with the Dominicans selected amber in the mines
later to study it in the laboratory. From those discoveries emerged the
connections with the diverse universities of Europe and soon with the
North Americans who studied enclosed insects in amber. The interchange of
opinions, diverse theories and stone interchange, created great emotions
and a deep knowledge. The collection began by not selling the prettiest
pieces and beautiful by my point of view, and simultaneously important for
the scientific field. An idea was later born to put in exhibition these
pieces so that others enjoyed the discovery of the insects and other
inclusions in the resin fossilized by million years.
In 1977, by chance, we bought
Villa Bentz, present location of the Museum of the Dominican Amber:
transformed dream into reality.
And the
preasure amberpieces were never again to be put in a
cigarbox...
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