Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombí



The Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombí (its local name in Catalan; also known in Museo Barbier-Mueller de Arte Precolombino, and in Barbier-Mueller Pre-Columbian Art Museum) was the only museum in Europe devoted exclusively to the artistic legacy of the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas. It was located in the Catalan capital of Barcelona, Spain. The museum was established in 1997 to house the pre-Columbian art collection formerly held by its parent museum, the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Genève, Switzerland, which was loaned to the city of Barcelona. In 2012, the museum was unable to reach a purchase agreement with the collection's owner Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller. Subsequently, the world's most important Pre-Columbian collection in private hands (according to El País) was split and auctioned at Southeby's on 22 March 2013.