The Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art is an art museum dedicated to the study and display of pre-Columbian artworks and artifacts from Central and South America. The museum is located in the city centre of Santiago, the capital of Chile. The museum was founded by the Chilean architect and antiquities collector Sergio 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's municipal government at the time, García-Moreno secured the building and established the museum's curatorial institution. The museum first opened in December 1981.

Building

The museum is housed in the Palacio de la Real Aduana, which was constructed between 1805 and 1807. It is located a block west of the Plaza de Armas and close to the Palacio de los Tribunales de Justicia de Santiago and the Former National Congress Building. In January 2014, as a result of a partnership with Minera Escondida and BHP Billiton, the museum inaugurated a new phase designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radic which involved a 70% expansion of the area, increasing exhibition spaces, storage, and the conservation laboratory.

Collection

Items in the museum's collections are drawn from the major pre-Columbian culture areas of Mesoamerica, Intermediate / Isthmo-Colombian, Pan-Caribbean, Amazonia and the Andean. 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: