Gold Museum, Santiago de Surco, Peru
The Gold Museum of Peru and Weapons of the World is an archaeological and military museum located in the district of Santiago de Surco, in Lima, created on 1960 from the private collection of Peruvian business man and diplomat Miguel Mujica Gallo. Works exhibited in the museum have been found mostly in the republican era and acquired by Miguel Mujica Gallo, who later donated them to the State.
Most of the collection comes from indiscriminate huaqueo of the archaeological sites of the north coast of Peru, His motivation was inspired by admiration to the history of Peru that had this collector and with the purpose to maintain the goldsmith legacy of ancient times, as a tribute to the pre-Columbian Peruvian cultures in their various manifestations.
The gold museum has pieces of gold, from earrings, masks, to ponchos embroidered with gold plates. There are also silver pieces and precious stones. Gold and silver had a complex magical religious symbolism in all Peruvian cultures. During pre-Incas these metals represented a constant duality sun-moon, day-night, feminine-masculine.The sun god or Inti represented sovereignty on the divine plane. The most important piece of gold is an Inti.
Peru Culture Route 2020 © Simon & Monika Newbound
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