Aztec to Zapotec: Selections from the Ancient Americas Collection features more than 180 works made prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Europeans during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Representing a time period of more than 3,000 years, the exhibition is drawn from the OMA’s comprehensive Art of the Ancient Americas Collection and gives a rare glimpse into the life and culture of numerous civilizations from the North, Central and South American regions. Significant ancient works of gold, silver, jade, ceramic, shell and wood are included from the cultures of the Aztec, Maya, Moche, Nasca, Inca and Zapotec.

The OMA’s Ancient Americas Collection is considered to be the broadest and most representative collection of its type in the Southeast, by Dr. S.J.K. Wilkerson, the director of the Institute of Cultural Ecology of the Tropics, Veracruz. Regarding the Collection, renowned University of Florida scholar Michael Moseley has stated, “…the Collection is magnificent. There are many very superb pieces … in conjunction with your other holdings it will put the museum on the map for Andean scholars.”