The Museum Collection of Black Magic (Portuguese: Coleção Museu de Magia Negra) was formed at the Civil Police Museum in the 1920s to house religious objects related to Afro-Brazilian religions, specifically those of Candomblé and Umbanda traditions. The police were charged with the suppression of baixo espiritismo, or low spiritism under the revised penal code of the First Republic; anti-sorcery and witchcraft statutes were issued on 11 October 1890. Items were confiscated from Candomblé terreiros, which were viewed variously as disruptive, sinister, or grotesque.