Funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Anthony J. Unruh have been used to purchase the last segment of the Aztlan Collection, a major private collection of Mesoamerican art named after the mythic Aztec homeland. This purchase adds depth and breadth to the Museum's Late Preclassic (300 B.C.-A.D. 250), Classic (A.D. 250-900) and Post Classic (A.D. 900-1521) periods collections with major objects from old collections assembled in the 1950s-70s. Since 1999, the Museum has made three other large purchases from the Aztlan Collection that strengthened its Olmec holdings, sculpture from the Preclassic period in general, and the ritual ballgame collection with funds from the McDonough, Lake Family and Humana Foundation Endowments. Because of the generosity of these patrons, the Museum now exhibits the most important collection of Olmec art in any art museum in the United States. The Unruh purchase reinforces the Museum's position as one of the most important general pre-Columbian collections in this country.

Thirty-four of the fifty-one works of art are figurines, the major focus of the Museum's collection. Fifteen Late Preclassic figurines from Michoacan and West Mexico add elegance and power to the museum's representation of that period. Lively colors found on the twelve, Classic period Teotihuacan figurines bring to mind the brilliance of a world whose colors are now lost. A two-part Teotihuacan brownware effigy vessel of a seated person holding a jar may be the finest Teotihuacan figurine known. Twelve, Classic period Veracruz figurines include an extremely rare whistle depicting the Great Goddess grinding corn, as well as a superb, mold-made, standing female figure with her arms raised. The Unruh purchase enables the curator to continue research on the painted decoration of these figurines.

The remainder of the purchase is a very important group of vessels from the Preclassic and Post Classic periods. Two,Tlatilco culture bird vessels were in the famous 1965 Museum of Primitive Art exhibition, The Jaguar's Children: Preclassic Central Mexico, curated by the well-known archaeologist and author, Michael D. Coe. There are important Preclassic Zapotec forms, including the finest known Zapotec bat/fish effigy bowl, formerly in the Jay Leff collection and exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in 1966. Toltec Maya plumbate ceramics and Aztec orangewares demonstrate the international influences and sophistication of Post Classic culture. Another Post Classic vessel from the Leff collection, a Mixtec tripod, is one of a handful of sources for images of the human soul in Mesoamerican art.

Click here to see highlights of the Aztlan Collection