Collections

Pre-Hispanic Americas

Running from prehistoric times to the arrival of Europeans and their voyages around the Americas, this collection contains more than 12,000 objects from the different cultural areas of the American continent.3

Viceregal America

The collection of fine and decorative arts from the period of Spanish rule reflects the cultural splendour of the different American territories under European political control.

Ethnology

Composed of rich and varied objects and sets, our ethnology section examines the material and immaterial culture of America’s Indigenous peoples in order to increase public knowledge and respect surrounding them.

Conservation

The museum preserves cultural property in order to ensure it is handed down to future generations.

Documentation and library

Access the museum's services: Archive and library consultation, researcher support, image reproduction and digital library, among others.

Recent acquisitions

Find out about the pieces that have come to our collections through state acquisitions, donations, etc.

The oldest collections of the Museum of the Americas come from the Royal Cabinet of Natural History of Charles III (1771), whose nucleus was formed by the purchase of the cabinet of curiosity of the Ecuadorian Pedro Franco Dávila. Later, pieces from the first archaeological excavations in America and ethnographic objects collected during the scientific expeditions of the 18th century were added.

These pieces passed through different institutions: the Museum of Natural Sciences and the National Archaeological Museum, where an American Ethnography Department was created, with objects ranging from American prehistory to the 19th century, with special emphasis on pre-Hispanic archaeology, ethnography and viceregal art.