The Luther College Fine Arts Collection contains a significant number of pre-Columbian pottery pieces, both complete and reconstructed, from Central and South America. These works came primarily from three sources. Several pieces were collected during three January-Term courses to Panama led by Dean Schwarz in 1969, 1971, and 1971 A second group of Mexican objects came from the family of Helen Elaine Talle. The estate of Marguerite Wildenhain donated the final grouping of 21 pre-Columbian objects from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.