Museo de América (Madrid, Spain)

The Museo de América is an art, archaeology, and ethnography museum in Madrid, Spain, devoted to the whole of the Americas from the Paleolithic period to the present day. It is one of the National Museums of Spain and it is attached to the Ministry of Culture. The museum was established by the Spanish State and its initial pieces came from the former collection of American archaeological and ethnographic artifacts from the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid and the Prado Museum, as well as exhibiting a number of unrelated donations, deposits and purchases. It has a major collection of 18th c. casta paintings, one by Miguel Cabrera, who created a set of 16 large format casta paintings. The museum's most famous painting is by Mexican artist, Luis de Mena, of the Virgin of Guadalupe and castas on a single canvas.