Museum of the Americas (Madrid)
The Museum of the Americas (Spanish: Museo de América) in Madrid, Spain is a national museum that holds artistic, archaeological and ethnographic collections from the whole Americas, ranging from the Paleolithic period to the present day.
Museo de América | |
Museum's façade | |
Established | 1941 |
---|---|
Location | Madrid, Spain |
Type | Artistic, archaeological and ethnographic |
Owner | General State Administration |
Website | museodeamerica |
Official name | Museo de América |
Type | Non-movable |
Criteria | Monument |
Designated | 1962 |
Reference no. | RI-51-0001378 |
It is owned by the Spanish State and its initial pieces came from the former collection of American archaeological and ethnographic artifacts from the National Archaeological Museum, also exhibiting a number of unrelated donations, deposits and purchases.[1]
History
The institution was founded via a decree from 19 April 1941 and opened in 1944 inside the building hosting the National Archaeological Museum.[2] After all the initial pieces were moved to a newly built premises in the Ciudad Universitaria, the building was thus inaugurated on 12 October 1965.[3] After a series of refurbishment works on the building (previously shared with a number of unrelated institutions), the museum was reopened on 12 October 1994, this time while holding the exclusivity on the use of the building.[4]
Collection
The permanent exhibit is divided into five major thematic areas:
- An awareness of the Americas
- The reality of the Americas
- Society
- Religion
- Communication
- Ceramic vessel representing a crustacean. Moche culture artwork from Peru.
- Bronze helmet of a 16th-century Spanish soldier.
- Chimú vessel showing a sexual act between men.
- Helmet and collar made by the Tlingit people (late 18th century).[5]
- Statuette of a Quimbaya cacique (200–1000 AD)[6]
- Maya Stele of Madrid (600–900 AD)[8]
- Aztec Codex Tudela
See also
- Museo Nacional de Antropología (Madrid), also featuring American pieces
References
- Citations
- García Sáiz & Jiménez Villalba 2009, p. 84.
- Krizmanics 2018, p. 40.
- García Sáiz & Jiménez Villalba 2009, p. 89.
- García Sáiz & Jiménez Villalba 2009, p. 90.
- García Sáiz & Jiménez Villalba 2009, p. 99.
- García Sáiz & Jiménez Villalba 2009, p. 95.
- García Sáiz & Jiménez Villalba 2009, p. 112.
- García Sáiz & Jiménez Villalba 2009, p. 91.
- "Vasija Nazca". Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte.
- Bibliography
- García Sáiz, Mª Concepción; Jiménez Villalba, Félix (2009). "Museo de América, mucho más que un museo" (PDF). Artigrama. Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza. 24: 83–118. ISSN 0213-1498.
- Krizmanics, Georg T. A. (2018). "El Museo de América de Madrid: ¿un instrumento para la política exterior española?". A contracorriente. 15 (2): 39–61.