Station: [61] The Felix Wiss Collection

Felix Wiss was born in Nuremberg in 1866 and lived in Costa Rica for most of his life. He left his hometown in 1894, at the age of 28. Perhaps the period of economic depression (known in Germany as the “Gründerkrise”) from 1873 to 1896 forced him to emigrate to Latin America. Once in Costa Rica, he worked on the estate of his future father-in-law. Later, he was given a parcel of land by the government and went on to grow fruit and coffee. Wiss also tried his hand at several other professions. He was a merchant, vice-consul of the German Empire for Costa Rica, and secretary of a bank. His family connections presumably anabled him to avoid the measures affecting German nationals – for example, internment during the two world wars.

Wiss was an avid collector, mainly of pre-Columbian objects acquired by barter, purchase, donation or by undertaking excavations. His collection is estimated about nineteen hundred items. These include objects made of clay, metal, wood and stone, but also minerals and stuffed animals from Costa Rica. Between 1903 and 1909, he donated more than a thousand objects to the Nuremberg Natural History Society. In return, the society made him an honorary member. As to the reasons for his donation – perhaps he was encouraged by the boost to his personal prestige, or by contemporary thinking of making a contribution to the study of human history.

His collection was exported long before the 1938 Act protecting Costa Rica’s archaeological heritage and the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Current provenance research is difficult, because Wiss didn’t provide the museum with many details about where the items were from. Moreover, he failed to keep records of his excavations. Although most of the material comes from the Highlands region, there are also objects from the other two regions, Diquís and Nicoya.