The beginning of the Anima Mundi Museum is traced back to The Americas: a set of five artifacts sent from the Tairona people of Colombia in 1691 to Pope Innocent XII. This collection gives voice to the different cultural expressions of peoples from all over the continent, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from the American Southwest to the Amazon, from Canada to Brazil, from the Pacific Northwest to Chile. The Americas section includes pre-Columbian artifacts from Central and South America. An example is shown here: the world-famous Aztec statue from Mexico representing Quetzalcoatl, the “Feathered Serpent”.