It begins with the pre-Hispanic antiquities that first entered European collections in the 16th century as gifts or seizures, continues through the rise of systematic collecting in Europe and the Americas during the 19th and 20th centuries, and ends in 1940—the start of Europe’s art market collapse at the outbreak of World War II and the coinciding genesis of the large-scale art market for pre-Hispanic antiquities in the United States.
Drawing upon archival resources and international museum collections, Collecting Mesoamerican Art before 1940: A New World of Latin American Antiquities (Getty Research Institute, $65) analyzes the ways shifting patterns of collecting and taste—including how pre-Hispanic objects changed from being viewed as anthropological and scientific curiosities to collectible artworks—have shaped modern academic disciplines as well as public, private, institutional, and nationalistic attitudes toward Mesoamerican art. As many nations across the world demand the return of their cultural patrimony and ancestral heritage, it is essential to examine the historical processes, events, and actors that initially removed so many objects from their countries of origin.
