Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)

The Museo de Arte de Lima, known as MALI, is the country's principal art museum and the best place in Lima to see how Peruvian art has developed over about 3,000 years. It occupies the Palacio de la Exposición, built for the international exhibition of 1872 in the Parque de la Exposición, at the entrance to the historic centre. The Italianate facade was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Leonardi, who also laid out the park with the journalist Manuel Atanasio Fuentes on the site of the old Guadalupe city gate.

The museum opened to the public on 10 March 1961 and today holds more than 17,000 works, of which over 1,200 are on permanent display. A major renovation began in 2008, and the permanent galleries reopened in September 2015. Pre-Columbian rooms show ceramics, textiles and goldwork from cultures such as the Moche, Nazca and Vicús, including some very early coastal textiles and basketry. The viceregal galleries cover painting of the Lima and Cusco schools, colonial ceramics and silverwork from the 16th century onwards.

Later rooms trace the 19th century through portraits and history painting by José Gil de Castro, Ignacio Merino, Francisco Laso and Luis Montero, and the early 20th century through the indigenista painters José Sabogal, Julia Codesido and Mario Urteaga. The photography collection reaches back to daguerreotypes and includes the work of Martín Chambi, and the modern and contemporary holdings feature Fernando de Szyszlo and Tilsa Tsuchiya among many others. MALI also runs a programme of temporary exhibitions, and its Manuel Solari Swayne library is the leading art library in Peru.

MALI works well for anyone wanting context for what they will see elsewhere in Peru: an hour in the pre-Columbian rooms adds a lot to a visit to Pachacamac or Cusco. The Parque de la Exposición around the building is a pleasant green space, and the Museo de Arte Italiano stands opposite.

The museum's website blocks automated checks, so confirm the current opening hours and exhibition programme directly before visiting. Allow two hours for the permanent collection. Online, the museum's free ARCHI digital archive of Peruvian art is a useful resource before or after a visit.