The National Museum of Peru is a

national museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

Lurín District Lurín is a district of the Lima Province in Peru. Known for its archaeological temple of Pachacámac, the Pachacámac Islands (or "La Ballena"), countryside areas, villages, fincas, rural restaurants, nightlife and beaches, it is one of the th ...

Lima, Peru 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 ...

, located within the archaeological zone of

Pachacamac Pachacámac () is an archaeological site southeast of Lima, Peru in the Valley of the Lurín River. The site was first settled around A.D. 200 and was named after the "Earth Maker" creator god Pacha Kamaq. The site flourished for about 1,300 ye ...

. The museum will hold over a half million artifacts of the

Pre-Columbian era 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 ...

and

Inca Empire 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 ...

, ranging back to 5,000 BCE. It opened in July 2021 as part of Peru's bicentennial celebrations and is capable of accepting 15,000 guests per day.

History

Planning and construction

Ideas for a

were first proposed by

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (; 25 February 177817 August 1850), nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's succe ...

in 1822 when he proposed a national museum, library and archive to be constructed during the

Peruvian War of Independence The Peruvian War of Independence () was a series of military conflicts in Peru from 1809 to 1826 that resulted in the country's independence from the Spanish Empire. Part of the broader Spanish American wars of independence, it led to the dis ...

. The idea was promoted again nearly two centuries later by Minister of Culture Diana Álvarez Calderón during the administration of President

Ollanta Humala Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso (; born 27 June 1962) is a Peruvian politician and former military officer who served as president of Peru from 2011 to 2016. Originally a socialist and left-wing nationalist, he is considered to have shifted towar ...

in 2013. Humala had initial plans for a museum in

Peruvian Amazonia Peruvian Amazonia (), informally known locally as the Peruvian jungle () or just the jungle (), is the area of the Amazon rainforest in Peru, east of the Andes and Peru's borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia. Peru has the second-l ...

, though Álvarez Calderón urged him to dedicate a national museum to Peru first, with ideas of creating a National Museum of Peru. In May 2014, bidding for the project's design was announced, with architect Alexia León Ángel winning the competition. The plan involved filling the new museum with pieces from the

Museo de la Nación The Museo de la Nación (English: ''Museum of the Nation'') is one of two major museums of Peruvian history in Lima, Peru. It is much larger than the other main museum in Lima, the Peruvian National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and H ...

– the former Ministry of Fisheries headquarters from 1970 – and the

National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru The National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Peru (, MNAAHP) is the largest and oldest museum in Peru, housed at the Palacio de la Magdalena (Peru), Palacio de la Magdalena, located in the of Pueblo Libre, a district of Lima, ...

, which was outdated and did not have proper equipment to maintain the temperature and lighting of displays. The process for safely transferring the items from other sites to the museum was anticipated to take about twenty years. Another area for more contemporary objects was also planned to fill the of space. By late-2017, planned areas for recreation and administration were removed to lower costs, with the seven-story, $125 million museum's area being set at . During the government of

Francisco Sagasti Francisco Rafael Sagasti Hochhausler (; born 10 October 1944) is a Peruvian engineer, academic, politician, and author who served as the President of Peru from November 2020 to July 2021. Sagasti has worked as an advisor for economic developme ...

, the Ministry of Culture announced in November 2020 that the museum was destined to open in July 2021 for the celebration of Peru's two-hundredth anniversary of independence.

Operation

In late July 2021, MUNA opened to the public with a limited display in four galleries. One gallery featured information about the museum's background and construction while another highlighted how Peru's antiquities and culture were exploited by illicit trade. MUNA is expected to be fully operational in 2024.

References

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History

Planning and construction

Operation

See also

References