There is a must if you are in Lima, The Larco Museum was founded in 1926 and is located in the District of Pueblo Libre, in Lima. It exhibits galleries that show 3000 years of pre-Columbian Peru history development. The Larco Museum is inside a colonial house that dates from eighteenth century, which was built on a seventh century pre-Columbian pyramid.
There are Samples of pre-Columbian cultures in great quantity and well preserved. You can see innumerable samples very well presented throughout different rooms in the museum.
Cultures Gallery
It shows 10,000 years of history of pre-Columbian Peru. This chronologically organized gallery offers visitors a comprehensive view of cultures that existed in pre-Columbian Peru through artifacts that survived the conquest of Peru in the sixteenth century. The gallery is divided into four areas: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast and Andes. Showcases have been arraged 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.
Gold and Silver Gallery
It shows the largest collection of jewelry used by several pre-Columbian rulers of Peru. It includes a collection of crowns, earmuffs, nose rings, jewelry, 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.
Gallery of erotic huacos
Huaco erotic moche that represents a scene of fellatio. It 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 of Peru, published in his book "Checan" (1966).
The Larco Museum is an excellent museum, not only for the collection, but for the way is displayed it, with the latest generation exhibition technique. As it is not so big it does not saturate and you can see without that feeling that the great museums give that you are missing something.
The Larco Museum is a delight for those who enjoy visits to museums. It has a high quality restaurant with a fairly broad schedule, plus a store with very good quality items.