My Story

My name is Joey Martinez and I, like you, share a deep appreciation and passion for Pre-Columbian Art and Artifacts.

I first experienced the Maya culture in 1992 during a trip to Chichen Itza in the Yucatán area of Mexico. After graduating from The University of San Diego in 1995, I embarked on a career in management and logistics. My love for these cultures only deepened during that time with multiple trips to Tikal in Guatemala as well as a few other sites.

I began collecting Pre-Columbian art over a decade ago. I was mesmerized by the beauty and significance of it all. I read every book I could find and learned about the cultures and what the art represented. It has been my passion ever since.

I remember how excited I was when I purchased my first pieces. I also remember how defeated I was when I found out they were all fake and sold to me by an unscrupulous dealer. I told myself I would never let that happen again and took my learning into overdrive.

During the last ten years, I have read every book on the subject, visited every major museum in the country, handled hundreds of pieces and built up a network of people I now call friends, who are dealers and experts in the field.

It is with this knowledge I have been adding to my collection of beautiful authentic pieces of art. Over the past few years, I have been assisting friends with their collection and helping new collectors begin theirs. It has been fun and rewarding but also heart-breaking when I inform some new collectors that their hard earned money has been spent on a fake or reproduction piece.

This is one of the reasons for launching this site. I wanted a place for experienced collectors to find a really nice authentic piece, as well as a place where a new collector can feel safe in acquiring and building theirs.

When people ask me what is my favorite thing about collecting Pre-Columbian art, I always say it’s the people and the relationships that come along with it. Some of my best friends are collectors that I’ve meet along the way.

Let me help you find the piece of your dreams or the entry level piece to start you on a lifelong passion…