Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art

The Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art occupies a neoclassical palace with a distinctive colonial facade, featuring heavy wooden doors and white stone columns that contrast with the surrounding modern city. Sergio Larrain Garcia Moreno started the collection in the nineteen thirties after buying a single piece of pottery. He eventually donated his thousands of artifacts to the city, creating this institution to house them. The stone mask of a Tiahuanaco deity from the Andes sits at the center of the first gallery.