PARIS, (AFP) – One of the world’s rarest collections of pre-Columbian art, estimated at some 20 million euros ($25.7 million), will go under the hammer next year in Paris, the Sotheby’s auction house said on Monday.

Amassed over the course of a century by a famed dynasty of French collectors, the Barbier-Muellers, some 300 artifacts from Mexico, Central and South America will go on sale on March 22 and 23.

From sculptures of wood or stone to ceramics, fabrics and ritual objects, the objects together offer a cross-section of Latin America’s major pre-Hispanic cultures.

Treasures up for grabs include an Aztec water goddess statue acquired by Josef Mueller in 1920 – the collector’s first major pre-Hispanic piece – or a human-shaped vase from the Brazilian island of Marajo, recently loaned to the British Museum.

Enriched over the years by Josef’s son-in-law Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, the collection is on display in Paris until Sept. 17, heading to Hong Kong from Oct. 5-8, New York from Nov. 3-13 and finally to London.

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