The Spanish incursion into the New World ended a unique cultural tradition whose roots extended for thousands of years in America's past. Lively and direct, and of impeccable execution, the art of the long and varied succession of Pre-Hispanic cultures has a common element: its predominantly symbolic and religious character, besides having an unequaled aesthetic quality.

The iconography imparted to their artistic creation allowed to identify their people and to perpetuate its cultural legacy. This symbolism, which today we call "style", sustained and evolved for centuries until its eventual disappearance. Nowadays we can recognize and identify these objects by the aesthetic tenacity of its artists.

We wish to briefly describe the cultures represented in our collection and to highlight some of their most significant aesthetic or technical elements. However, we want to emphasize that all cultures are extremely complex to summarize in a few sentences, and that we recommend a more extensive reading in order to obtain a better understanding. We also want to make clear that such descriptions do not totally cover the aesthetic amplitude of each culture. Each one of these cultures has marginal artistic manifestations that break the scheme of their own tradition.