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Ancient Cultures Fascinated the Didrichsen Couple

The artifacts in the Maya II exhibition are from Guatemala and the majority of the pieces date back to 700-800 A.D. There are also 15 items in the exhibition, which are from the Didrichsen collections.

The founders of the museum, Marie- Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen, bought their first Pre-Columbian art piece from a Bukowski auction in Stockholm in 1963. The art piece was a meditating figure from Mexico.


Meditator from Nayarit, Mexico. First Pre-Columbian purchase by Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen


This first purchase lead to a great fascination of ancient cultures and soon they collected around 400 pieces of them. Most of the items had been purchased in the 1960īs from international art dealers.

Modern and ancient

The ancient collection in the museum consists mainly of Pre-Columbian and Asian artifacts. There are also some pieces from Persia, Egypt, Africa and Oceania. The Pre-Columbian works of art are mainly from Mexico, Peru and Guatemala and they represent a wide variety of cultures and time periods.

The Pre-Columbian collection in the Didrichsen Museum of Art and Culture is the only of its kind in Finland. In addition to the exotic cultures there is a collection of modern Finnish and international paintings and sculptures, which can be found at the museum.



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