The Larco Museum (officially known as Rafael Larco Herrera Archaeological Museum, in ) is a privately owned museum of

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

art, located in the

Pueblo Libre Pueblo Libre ( Spanish for "free village" or "free nation"), formerly known as La Magdalena and commonly known as Old Magdalena () to differentiate it from Magdalena del Mar District, is a district of Lima Province in Peru. Created by Law 9162 ...

District of

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. The museum is housed in an 18th-century vice-royal building. It showcases chronological galleries that provide a thorough overview of 5,000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. It is well known for its gallery of pre-Columbian erotic pottery.

History

In 1925, Rafael Larco Herrera acquired a collection of vases and other archaeological pieces from his brother-in-law, Alfredo Hoyle. There were approximately 600 ceramic pieces in all. The arrival of these objects ignited a collector's enthusiasm in his son, Rafael Larco Hoyle. Soon after, Larco Herrera left his son in charge of the collection and those pieces completed the first collection of what would become the Rafael Larco Herrera Museum. During that same year, Larco Hoyle received some advice from his uncle, Victor Larco Herrera, a founder of the first museum in Lima. He urged Larco Hoyle to form a new museum in Lima, one that could guard all the archaeological relics that were continually being extracted by clandestine excavators. Larco Hoyle agreed with his uncle and proceeded to create a museum that would carry on his father's legacy. Larco Hoyle purchased two large collections: 8,000 pieces from Roa and 6,000 pieces from Carranza. He also purchased several small collections in Chicama Valley, Trujillo,

Virú Virú is a town in Northern Peru, capital of the province Virú in the region La Libertad. This town is located 48 km south Trujillo city and is primarily an agricultural center in the Viru Valley. In the 1960s around 850 families lived in t ...

, and

Chimbote Chimbote ; ) is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the largest city in the Ancash Region and the List of cities in Peru, tenth most populous in Peru. With a population of 425,367 in 2017, it is the capital of both Santa Province and Chimbote Dist ...

. Within a year, the collection had grown significantly and display cases were installed in a small house on the Chiclín estate. On July 28, 1926, Independence Day, the museum opened to the public as Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. The Larco Museum now lends some of its collection to its daughter museum, the Museo de Arte Precolombino (Pre-Columbian Art Museum), located in

Cusco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous Cusco Province, province and Cusco Region, department. The city was the cap ...

, Peru.

Exhibitions

Permanent exhibits

The museum has several permanent exhibitions. The Gold and Silver Gallery showcases the largest collection of jewelry used by many notable rulers of pre-Columbian Peru. It comprises a collection of crowns, earrings, nose ornaments, garments, masks and vases, finely wrought in gold and decorated with semi-precious stones. Ancient Peruvian cultures represented their daily lives in ceramics, and this gallery holds the world's largest collection of erotic ceramics. The Cultures Gallery exhibits 10,000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. This chronology-based gallery provides visitors with a comprehensive view of cultures that existed in pre-Columbian Peru through the extant indigenous art that has survived since the 16th century

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

. This hall is divided into four areas: North Coast, Center, South and cultures from the highlands. Showcases have been ordered according to cultural sequence: * From the North Coast:

Cupisnique Stirrup-handled Cupinisque ceramic vase 1250 BC ( Larco Museum collection) The Cupisnique culture was a pre-Columbian indigenous culture that flourished from c. 1500 to 500 BC along what now is Peru's northern Pacific coast. The culture had a dist ...

Vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

, Mochica and

Chimu Chimor (also Kingdom of Chimor or Chimú Empire) was the political grouping of the Chimú culture (). The culture arose about 900 CE, succeeding the Moche culture, and was later conquered by the Inca emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui around 1470, f ...

; * From the Central Coast:

and

Chancay Chancay is a small city located north of Lima. Its population is 63,378. The Chancay culture was a pre-Columbian archaeological culture, later part of the Inca Empire. The small city is the site of the Chancay Mega-port, a deep water port buil ...

; * From the South Coast: Paracas,

Nazca Nazca (; sometimes spelled Nasca; possibly from ) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru. The city of Nazca is the largest in the Nazca Province. The name is derived from the Nazca culture, which flourished in the area be ...

and Chincha; * From the Highlands: Chavín,

Tiahuanaco Tiwanaku ( or ) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilometers and in ...

Huari Huari may refer to: *Huari culture, a historical civilization in Peru *Huari (archaeological site), an archaeological site in Peru *Huari, Peru, a town in Peru * Huari District, a district in the Huari Province, Peru * Huari Province, a province in ...

and

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

. Other galleries include the Lithic, Vault, Ceramics, Metals, Textiles and Storage in which visitors have the opportunity to view the museum's entire collection of classified archaeological objects.

International exhibits

In addition to its permanent exhibits, the Larco Museum lends its collections to several museums and cultural centers around the world.

Gallery of pre-Columbian Erotic Pottery

This hall displays the selection of archaeological objects found by Rafael Larco Hoyle in the 1960s, as a result of his research on sexual representations in Peruvian pre-Columbian art, published in his book, "Checan" (1966).

Other points of interest

The Museum Gallery Shop has a wide variety of ceramic, metal and textile reproductions made by skilled craftsmen from all over Peru. The museum has formalized the reproduction techniques for these pre-Columbian artifacts and assesses each piece to ensure quality.

Gallery

References

* Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. ''The Spirit of Ancient Peru: Treasures from the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera.'' New York:

Thames and Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, 1997.

External links

Larco Museum Homepage
*
Los Mochicas
* http://cafe.museolarco.org/
Virtual tour of the Larco Museum
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

* {{Authority control Museums in Lima History museums in Peru Archaeological museums in Peru Pre-Columbian art museums 1926 establishments in Peru Art museums and galleries established in 1926 Pueblo Libre District