Museo Larco, Libre, Peru

The Larco Museum (Spanish: Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera) is a privately owned museum of pre-Columbian art, located in the Pueblo Libre District of Lima, Peru. The museum is housed in an 18th-century vice-royal building built over a 7th-century pre-Columbian pyramid. It showcases chronological galleries that provide a thorough overview of 4,000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. It is well known for its gallery of pre-Columbian erotic pottery.

The Museo Larco portrays to the visitor an engaging narrative of the development of 5000 years of Peru’s pre-Columbian history, making it the ideal way to understand Ancient Peru. Its masterpieces are considered worldwide icons of Pre-Columbian art, after being exhibited in the world’s leading museums.Peru is worldwide famous thanks to the Inca Empire on the Andes Mountains; however few are aware that this society existed only for the last 100 years before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores.

The Museo Larco offers a complete overview of Peru’s fascinating history in a simple yet thorough manner, thus becoming a required starting point for foreign visitors in order to be able to understand Peru as a cultural destination. Places such as the great temple of Pachacamac just a few miles South of Lima, the well-known Nasca lines on the southern coast, the magnificent Pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon up North, and of course even Machu Picchu the superb Inca sanctuary in Cusco, start making sense when they’re seen as part of a wider and deeper history.

Since its inception, the Museo Larco has sought to construct an unforgettable experience for each of its visitors. In order to achieve this goal, the museum has put much care into every aspect of this living, cultural experience. The colonial architecture, the décor, the elegantly presented galleries bathed in warm colours and intimate lighting, the fascinating narrative told by breathtaking works of art, the lush gardens, the exquisite museum’s gift shop and the extraordinary local and international cuisine at the museum’s restaurant, are some of the many ingredients that compose the sensual as well as educational experience at this boutique museum.

The Larco Museum was founded in 1926 and is located in the Pueblo Libre District in Lima. It exhibits galleries that show the 3000 years of development of the history of pre-Columbian Peru. It is located inside a virreinal hacienda house that dates from the XVIII century, which was built on a pre-Columbian pyramid of the VII century.

The Larco Museum exhibits an impressive archaeological collection that allows to understand the development of the history of ancient Peru. All pre-Columbian cultures are represented through masterpieces of ceramics, textiles, work in stone, wood, silverware and goldsmiths. In the Galleries of Cultures it is possible to traverse the more than 5000 years of pre-Columbian history.

Surrounded by beautiful gardens (winners of the prize for the best gardens of Peru in January 2009), it is located inside a unique viceregal mansion of its kind and dates from the XVIII century, which was in turn, built on a pyramid Pre-Columbian century AD

The original idea of ​​the founder and archaeologist Rafael Larco Hoyle in 1926, was to share his passion for pre-Columbian art. The Larco Museum offers didactic information about the customs, beliefs and rituals of the cultures that were developed in the old Peru. The Sacrifice Room and the Erotic Room allow us to understand the relationships between the different worlds in which the ancient Peruvians organized their universe. Ritual combats and sacrifices were the main delivery that human beings made to their gods in the world above, requesting its benefits. Sexual activities were related to the propitiation of the world of the dead, the delivery of fluids to fertilize the land and allow the growth of their products.

In the Museo Larco, one can appreciate the finest and exceptional collection of gold and silver of ancient Peru. In the Galleries of Gold and Jewels, the beautiful adornments and emblems of power allow us to know how the priests and rulers became supernatural and divine beings, and the importance of the cult of the dead to the societies of ancient Peru.

The Larco Museum is one of the few museums in the world where visitors can browse their Classified Deposits and appreciate the 45,000 properly organized archaeological objects. This visit is an unforgettable experience.

Permanent exhibitions:
The museum has several permanent exhibits. The Gold and Silver Gallery displays the largest collection of jewelry used by several rulers of pre-Columbian Peru. It includes a collection of crowns, earmuffs, nose rings, jewels, masks and glasses, finely worked in gold and decorated with semiprecious stones. The ancient cultures of Peru represented their daily life in ceramics, this museum having an important collection of erotic huacos.

The Las Culturas gallery shows 10,000 years of pre-Columbian Peru history. This gallery arranged chronologically offers visitors a comprehensive view of the cultures that existed in pre-Columbian Peru through artifacts that survived the conquest of Peru in the 16th century. The gallery is divided into four areas: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast and Andes. The showcases have been arranged according to the cultural sequence:

North Coast: Cupisnique, Vicús, Moche and Chimú;
Central Coast: Lima and Chancay;
South Coast: Paracas, Nazca and Chincha;
Andes: Chavín, Tiahuanaco, Wari and Inca.
Other galleries are Lítica, Vault, Ceramios, Metales, Textiles and the Deposit, where visitors can see the complete collection of classified archeological artifacts from the Museum.

International Exhibitions:
In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Rafael Larco Herrera Museum lends its collections to various museums and cultural centers around the world.

Gallery of erotic huacos:
This gallery shows the selection of ceramics found by Rafael Larco Hoyle in the 1960s, as a result of his research on sexual representations in pre-Columbian art in Peru, published in his book “Checan” (1966).

The works of art of the Museo Larco have been exhibited in the most prestigious museums of the world and are considered icons of pre-Columbian art worldwide. After the visit, the Café del Museo, next to the gardens, offers drinks and typical Peruvian dishes. In addition, the Museo Larco
Has the La Tienda del Museo, where you can get certified copies of your main
Pieces of the collection and souvenirs inspired by the beautiful collection.