Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino | |
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 Facade of the Museum in 2020. | |
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| Established | December 1981 (1981-12) |
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| Location | Bandera 361 Santiago,Chile |
| Coordinates | 33°26′20″S70°39′08″W / 33.4389055556°S 70.6521694444°W /-33.4389055556; -70.6521694444 |
| Type | Art museum |
| Director | Cecilia Puga |
| Curator | José Berenguer Rodríguez |
| Public transit access | Metro station: Plaza de Armas |
| Website | www |
TheChilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art (Spanish:Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino) is anart museum dedicated to the study and display ofpre-Columbian artworks andartifacts fromCentral andSouth America.[1]
The museum is located in the city centre ofSantiago, the capital ofChile. The museum was founded by the Chilean architect and antiquities collectorSergio Larraín García-Moreno, who had sought premises for the display and preservation of his private collection of pre-Columbian artefacts acquired over the course of nearly fifty years.
With the support of Santiago'smunicipal government at the time, García-Moreno secured the building and established the museum'scuratorial institution. The museum first opened in December 1981.
The museum is housed in thePalacio de la Real Aduana, which was constructed between 1805 and 1807.[2] It is located a block west of thePlaza de Armas and close to thePalacio de los Tribunales de Justicia de Santiago and theFormer National Congress Building.
In January 2014, as a result of a partnership withMinera Escondida andBHP Billiton, the museum inaugurated a new phase designed by Chilean architectSmiljan Radic which involved a 70% expansion of the area, increasing exhibition spaces, storage, and the conservation laboratory.[3]
Items in the museum's collections are drawn from the majorpre-Columbianculture areas ofMesoamerica,Intermediate /Isthmo-Colombian,Pan-Caribbean,Amazonia and theAndean. The museum has over 3,000 pieces representing almost 100 different groups of people. The collection ranges from about 10,000 years. The original collection was acquired based on the aesthetic quality of the objects, instead of their scientific or historical context. The collection is broken up into four areas:[1]
| International | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
