Three museums are worth seeing in Guatemala City: the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Museo Ixchel, and the Museo Popol Vuh.
The Popol Vuh Museum features a huge collection of Maya ceramics (several rooms on exhibit and an extensive study collection for scholars). The FLAAR Library of Nicholas Hellmuth is available within the museum offices.
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The ceramic art on display in the Museo Popol Vuh is all authentic and virtually none of these Maya pots have been falsified by repainting. Actually the Museo Popol Vuh has the highest percentage of authentic (non-repainted) vases in the world. The National Museum of course has a larger overall collection, but most of the pottery from the Mundo Perdido excavations were ruined by too much repainting with fresh paint. Such repainting is done with the misunderstanding that fresh paint = "restoration." Of course trying to recreate an ancient Maya painting with modern paint by a modern artist destroys the original surface of the pottery no matter how slick and well done (or well meaning, or well intentioned).
The Museo Popol Vuh started as the collection of Jorge and Ela Castillo. Don Jorge loved Spanish colonial art, so the museum has a room devoted to treasures that Don Jorge collected.
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The Popol Vuh museum also has a bookstore where you can find lots of books that are not sold by www.amazon.com.
