Museo de Arte de Lima

MALI occupies the Palacio de la Exposición, an iron-framed hall built in 1872 for an industrial exhibition and later converted into the city's art museum. What makes it useful is the sequence: the permanent galleries run chronologically from pre-Columbian ceramics and textiles through colonial religious painting of the Cusco school, into republican portraiture and early photography, and on to Peruvian modern and contemporary work. Almost everywhere else in Lima splits those periods between separate institutions, so this is the one building where the whole line is visible in an afternoon. The park outside, laid out in the same period, has ponds, a bandstand and a Moorish pavilion.

History

MALI occupies the Exhibition Palace built for the 1872 exhibition in Lima: its cast-iron frame came from Gustave Eiffel's workshop in 1870-1871, and the Italian architect Antonio Leonardi designed the façade and, with Manuel Atanasio Fuentes, the park. The museum was inaugurated in 1961, and renovated galleries opened on the second floor in 2015 (Wikipedia, Lima Art Museum).

The main sights

• The colonial galleries - Cusco school painting, gilded frames and viceregal portraits.
• The pre-Columbian rooms - ceramics and textiles opening the chronological sequence.
• Twentieth-century Peruvian art - the modern and contemporary end of the collection.
• The building and park - the 1872 iron-framed palace and the gardens around it.

When to go

Year-round; this is indoor Lima and the coastal overcast does not matter. It closes one day a week and hours are shorter at weekends. Downtown traffic between Miraflores and the park is slow at rush hour, so aim for the middle of the day, and allow more time if a temporary exhibition has taken over part of the permanent display.

Things to know

English labelling is thin and inconsistent across the permanent galleries. The building has been under rolling restoration for years and a wing or a floor is often closed, sometimes without notice, which can cut the visit in half. The park around it is a daytime place; the museum closes before the evening anyway. It is a good museum rather than a great one, and the Larco has the stronger pre-Columbian collection.

Nearby

Lima's historic centre is a short ride north; Miraflores and Barranco lie south.

Key facts