Larco Museum

Museo Larco is a private archaeological museum in the Pueblo Libre district of Lima, Peru, with a comprehensive collection of pre-Columbian art and artifacts. The museum was established by Rafael Larco Hoyle and opened to the public in the 20th century as a centre for research and display.

Extensive museum galleries arrange pottery, textiles, and metalwork to illustrate cultural change across pre-Columbian Peru; the collection is notable for its scale and for specialist displays such as erotic ceramics. Visitors also see a restored vice-royal building that houses part of the collection and landscaped gardens that display outdoor exhibits.

Founded by archaeologist Rafael Larco Hoyle in the 1920s, the museum built a reputation for research and careful curation of pre-Hispanic material. Over the 20th century it expanded into a major public museum and research institution for Peruvian archaeology.

Located in the Pueblo Libre district of Lima, the museum is a short drive west of central Lima and is a standard stop for visitors studying Peru’s pre-Columbian cultures.

• Collection size: Houses a collection of more than 45,000 archaeological and pre-Columbian pieces spanning several millennia of Andean history.
• Highlights: Best known for its organized chronological displays and the museum's widely cited collection of erotic ceramics from pre-Columbian cultures.

What to See #

• Chronological galleries: A series of chronological galleries that present pre-Columbian cultures from earliest ceramics through to late pre-Hispanic societies, arranged to show development over time.
• Gold and silver gallery: A permanent display of pre-Hispanic gold, silver and metalwork showing ritual and decorative objects from coastal and highland cultures.
• Erotic pottery gallery: A distinctive collection of Moche-era erotic ceramics exhibited as a continuous gallery and frequently highlighted in visitor guides.