Personalized Private Service, 2013

Address:Alonso de Molina 1100 – Monterrico – Surco – Lima 33 – Perú Phone: (51(1)) 345-1292 - (51)(1)345-1271 - (51)(1)345-1787.Office Hours: Monday to Friday of 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Museum Hours:Monday to Sunday of 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Closing Dates:1st January, 1st May, 28 th July, 25 th December. Entrance Price: Adults S/. 33.00. Children under 11 S/. 16.00 Audioguide Service: Multilingual: French / English / German / Spanish

Through these pages the Miguel Mujica Gallo Foundation wishes to show the world the beauty and quality of the works of different cultures, both from our Peruvian heritage, as seen in the Gold Museum of Peru, and from the different countries around the world, through the Weapons of the World Museum . We must give emphasis to the fact that the pieces were collected by a committed Peruvian who dedicated much of his life and fortune in favor of culture.

Our Foundation was created for selfless purposes, to protect the permanence of Museums and for them to become, both now and in the future, a tourist attraction of our beloved city.

Miguel Mujica Gallo, born in Lima , was a distinguished gentleman and a businessman linked to various economic activities in his country. Above all, he was an internationally renowned collector: a cultured man, passionate about the great historical and artistic tradition of Peru . However, his interest and curiosity spread to other nations as well, and to the most remote areas of this country, as evidenced by anyone who visits his extraordinary collection of weapons and firearms: twenty thousand pieces of all the different eras and countries - one of the most remarkable private collections in the world.

During his numerous trips around the globe, he gradually gathered fascinating pieces and weapons - some of them true gems - that belonged to famous historical personalities. Works that are presently exhibited in an environment conditioned to receive the public and transport it to other times in history.

A spectacular collection of Peruvian Ancient Gold and the Arms of the World Collection. This tour also includes a visit to Friendship Park.

Peru`s Gold Museum.- Ancient Peruvians were master metalworkers. The “cire perdue” or lost wax process, known across the Orient and lost in the West until the Renaissance, was the most frequent technique used by master ancient Peruvian gold and silversmiths.

On our tour of Peru’s Gold Museum, visitors will appreciate a dazzling collection of gold artefacts from various pre-Colombian civilizations, some more than 3,000 years old Metal pieces and jewellery of incalculable value in gold, silver and precious stones used by the Incas—the children of the Sun God and monarchs of the vast Inca Empire—are shown in this collection. Five hundred years ago, the gold of Peru attracted many European adventurers who conquered the Inca and founded the Vice-Royalty of Peru under the Spanish Crown.

Peru’s Gold Museum also houses a valuable collection of old and modern weapons that ranks among the best in the world. The halls in this section show the Arms of the World Collection of armour, uniforms and various ancient war artifacts and weapons from various time periods around the world, some dating back to as long ago as 1300 B.C.

The "Gold of the Yungas” (as splendorous as the Sun of the Incas) shone brightly; it was an ornament that covered mummies and embellished temples; it was used, however, as a means of exchange or to fulfill a utilitarian role of wealth.

The showcases of the “Gold Museum of Peru” display the craftsmanship of several centuries of Peruvian history, mainly in pre-Inca gold. There are decorative items of all the cultures, such as, embossed and weaved nose ornaments with cut stone pendants; sets of filigree figures depicting birds, men, or monkeys; mantles, bracelets and earflaps of the Vicus culture; lizards, weasels, felines, bags of coca leaves, earrings and belts of the Frias culture; pectorals with zoomorphic designs, flat or embossed crowns of the Chancay culture; funerary masks with twisted rays or serpents from Ica; and masks with open mouths and teeth, wristbands, shin protectors and spatulas of the Nazca culture.

The different exhibition rooms of the museum also harbor the richness of the gold objects of the Chimu art; exquisite vessels or “huacos” from Lambayeque with two open spouts joined by a curved handle; large funerary masks painted red and eyes inlaid with stones; high crowns of feathers, “tumis” or ceremonial knives depicting the image of an idol on the handle and made of filigree; ceremonial vases with inlays; large embossed glove-like hands and arms; foxes, fish, earflaps, earrings, brooches, pectorals, a countless number of necklaces; scepters, small pots, mantles decorated with thousands of gold pieces (simulating scales); gold balls, gold pendants, and even large wooden portable gold-plated platforms inlaid with precious stones.

The ancient Peruvian people worked the metals magnificently. Embossing, lamination, engraving, welding and alloying were the processes used by the Peruvian craftsmen in the 8 th Century. The "cire perdue" (lost wax) procedure, known in the East and which had disappeared in the Western World until the Renaissance, was the most popular procedure: it reproduced an object in a semi-solid resin, covering it with a layer of ceramic, similar to that of the “huacos”, heating it until the molten resin seeped through the covering, leaving a cast identical to the original object, into which the melted metal was poured. Once the metal had solidified, the covering would be broken.

The following technique was also used in the North of Peru: items were hammered and embossed or engraved, cut and fitted, hardened through heating, and thereafter soldered by hammering or by welding, with low grade gold or silver. Small furnaces equipped with a copper pipe to conduct the air with which they stoked the fire were used for this procedure.