Museum of Pre-Columbian Art

Museum of Pre-Columbian Art

The Museum of Pre-Columbian Art is located in Santiago, the capital of Chile. Established in December 1981, it is a museum dedicated to the research and exhibition of artworks and artifacts from pre-Columbian Central and South America. Supported by the Santiago municipal government, the museum was founded by Chilean architect and antiquities collector Sergio Larraín García-Moreno. Over nearly fifty years of collecting, he gathered a vast array of pre-Columbian artifacts, forming the core collection at the museum’s inception.

The museum's collection mainly originates from various pre-Columbian cultural regions such as Mesoamerica, Isthmo-Colombia, Pan-Caribbean, the Amazon rainforest, and the Andes, spanning a time period of ten thousand years. The collections are divided into four main areas: the first is the Mesoamerican region, featuring artifacts such as a statue of Xipe Totec, Teotihuacan incense burners, and Maya reliefs. The second is the Central Region, showcasing pottery made by the Valdivia people and gold objects from the Veraguas and Diquís regions. The third is the Central Andes section, primarily displaying masks and copperware, with the most representative piece being a three-thousand-year-old painted textile from the Chavín civilization. The last section is the Southern Andes area, which mainly includes items from modern-day Chile and Argentina, such as ceramic jars from the Aguada culture and snuff trays from the San Pedro culture.

Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

Must-visit reason: The most important pre-Columbian museum in South America

Continent: South America [South America]

Country/Region: Chile [Chile]

Province/State: Santiago Metropolitan Region [Santiago Metropolitan Region]

City: Santiago [Santiago]