Museo Larco

If you have time to visit only one museum in Lima, it should be this. Founded by Rafael Larco Hoyle, a wealthy Peruvian with an interest in archaeology, it contains more than 45,000 pottery vessels, textiles and gold and silver objects. Over the course of several decades, Larco bought others’ collections in addition to undertaking his own archaeological excavations, in which he enlisted the help of his wife and extended family. The museum that houses his collection is modern but incorporates many splendid colonial columns, doors and decorative details from the house of the Marqueses de Herrera y Villahermosa in Trujillo.