LEON, GUANAJUATO.- More than 300 Prehispanic pieces arrived to Guanajuato Art and History Museum as part of the exhibition “Veracruz: Ancient Cultures from Gulf of Mexico”, open from August 7th until November 2009. 80 per cent of the objects are exhibited for the first time, and the conjunct will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Sao Paolo, in Brazil.

Organized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the exhibition emerged in 2007 from the cataloguing, register and restoration of the collections in custody of Veracruz INAH Center, with the aim of promoting heaps lodged in 12 museums in the state.

Alfonso de Maria y Campos INAH general director, declared at the inauguration that the exhibition is result of 2 and a half years of work conducted by restorers after pieces were registered and catalogued; “people of Guanajuato are privileged to be able to admire pieces not exhibited before”.

The INAH director remarked how jointed efforts of federal and state governments have resulted in projects as this one that will be exhibited later in several cities in South America.

Pieces found in archaeological sites at El Tajin, El Idolo, Tres Zapotes, Matacapan, El Zapotal, Cempoala, Las Puertas, Castillo de Teayo and Palmillas, where Olmeca, Totonaca and Huasteca cultures developed, as well as smaller groups as La Mixtequilla, Remojads and Tuxtlas region.

Nearly 300 objects are part of San Juan de Ulua Fort Museum, and the rest is part of 7 INAH museums and 5 community ones, such as Community Museum of Tampico el Alto, informed David Gonzalez Gomez, chief of Collections Control at Veracruz INAH Center.

The Prehispanic Collection of Veracruz City Museum, handed over to INAH in 2000 as a result of its restructuration, is exhibited.

Leticia Perez Castellanos, sub director of INAH International Exhibitions explained that importance of this exhibit “lies in being an integral project that considers promotion of pieces rescued in archaeological research conducted in several regions of Gulf of Mexico during several years”.

Prehispanic objects manufactured with shell, bone, ceramics and stone go from 3 centimeters high figurines to medium format pieces such as 160 centimeters long friezes.

“Veracruz: Ancient Cultures from Gulf of Mexico” is divided in 10 thematic modules: From First Abstractions to Ritual Art, Portrait of Nature, Ball Game in Veracruz, Shared Gods and Cults, Fertility and the Body, Regional Development and Style Merge, as well as Mesoamerican Exchange Networks, among others.

Exhibition will remain open in Luis Garcia Guerrero Hall at Guanajuato Museum of Art and History until November 8th 2009, located in Guanajuato Cultural Forum facilities, 308 Calzada de los Heroes Avenue, Leon, Guanajuato.