Most museums hide their overstock in workrooms, cabinets, and closets inaccessible to visitors. The Larco Museum in Lima has such an abundance of pre-Columbian artifacts, and such a relatively small space in which to display them, that it simply puts the extras out on glassed shelving in a couple of side rooms, fully viewable to visitors. An amazing treat!
I found these metal masks, and dramatically lit headresses mounted on ebony-like models, to be particularly striking exhibits in Lima's Larco Museum.
From December 21 to January 6 we took an interesting cruise up the coast of South America from Callao (Lima) Peru through the Panama Canal to Fort Lauderdale, Florida aboard the Silversea ship Silver Moon. We flew to Lima a couple of days early to see some more of this interesting city.
One of Lima's treasures is the Larco Museum, "a privately owned museum of pre-Columbian art, located in the Pueblo Libre District of Lima, Peru. The museum is housed in an 18th-century vice-royal building. It showcases chronological galleries that provide a thorough overview of 5,000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history." (Wikipedia).
For the next several days I'll be posting photos of some of the Larco holdings that particularly attracted my camera.
Qatar outside of Doha is a relatively small, sandy, sparsely populated country, but with a lot of variety and interest (and oil wealth). Much of the FIFA activities - soccer and auto racing - took place in the purpose-built facilities here, along with housing for the contestants. Our guide took us for a day's tour, which yielded these photos, from prehistory to contemporary activities.
This is a fascinating building and collection, of which these few photos show only a tiny sample. From a statement by the architect, Jean Nouvel:
"The National Museum of Qatar emerges from a desert that has ventured all the way to the sea. ...
Qatar is also about the peoples who settled along the seaboard, setting up these coastal towns that became ports of call for passing nomads as much as local fishermen and pearl divers. And so the native fauna and flora, and the nomadic peoples and their long-held traditions, are the very first features of the history of Qatar. ...
Three economic miracles occurred to shake up this overwhelming tranquility. The first, dating from Roman times, was associated with pearl fishing and the pearl trade. The second, in the aftermath of the Second World War, was the amazing discovery of oil, followed twenty years later by the discovery of another treasure: gas. The desert peninsula of Qatar and its people suddenly saw enormous, dazzling change and the country turned into a real crossroads, alluring and open, and attracting visitors from far and wide. ...
The building I designed needed to reflect these three different stories. The first, which covers a long period, is the story of the peninsula and its inhabitants. The second is an exploration of the coastal and desert lifestyles as well as the pearling industry, and third covers the spectacular acceleration that gave the kingdom – in just a few decades – the power and prosperity we associate with it today. Because of its economic power, Qatar has become a world leader in fields as diverse as education, communications, and energy technology."
From Wikipedia:
"The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) is a museum on one end of the seven-kilometer-long (4.3 mi) Corniche in Doha, Qatar. As per the architect I. M. Pei's specifications, the museum is built on an island off an artificial projecting peninsula near the traditional dhow harbor.
The museum is influenced by ancient Islamic architecture yet has a uniquely modern design involving geometric patterns. It is the first of its kind to feature over 14 centuries of Islamic art in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf.
At 91 years of age, the museum's architect, I. M. Pei had to be coaxed out of retirement to undertake this enterprise. He traveled throughout the Muslim world on a six-month quest to learn about Muslim architecture and history and read Muslim texts to draw inspiration for his design."
From Wikipedia: "Katara is a cultural village in Doha. It is located on the eastern coast between West Bay and the Pearl. ...'Katara' was the historical name used for Qatar prior to the 18th century. Katara has an open amphitheater, an opera house, a multi-purpose cinema, a multi-purpose conference hall, a beach, and a souq. ...Many Qatari organisations have their offices in Katara. ...The buildings and facilities at Katara were deliberately arranged in order to reflect the country's cultural and architectural heritage."
We were given a nice tour by our Tours by Locals guide, seen in the amphitheater.
