Gold of the Ancient Americas

On view now at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore is Gold of the Ancient Americas, an exhibition showcasing more than 50 artifacts, including cast animal pendants, a hammered gold disc, beaded necklaces and nose ornaments made by the indigenous peoples of the ancient Americas from Peru to Panama. The exhibition explores the Walters’ collection of gold ornaments crafted in Central and South America between AD 500 and 1500, alongside gifts to the collection from several generous donors. A mix of art and science, the exhibition tells the story of ancient societies through their use of gold as a symbol of power, wealth, and privilege, and highlights the making of gold objects by ancient American goldsmiths before the Spanish conquest.

Visit the Walters Art Museum website.

Images courtesy of the Walters Art Museum

Les rois mochica: Divinité et pouvoir dans le Pérou ancien

For its reopening, the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève (MEG) is holding a world-premiere exhibition of the treasures from a royal Moche tomb that was excavated by Steve Bourget and his team in the summer of 2008. The hitherto unseen pieces from the Huaca El Pueblo archaeological site near the village of Ucupe on the north coast of Peru form the nucleus of this exhibition, which will be on view until May 3, 2015. It also features exceptional pieces from other royal tombs, including those of Sipán and Dos Cabezas. With more than 300 works, of which sixty are on loan from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and 180 from European museums including those of Berlin, Stuttgart, and Schaffhausen, Les rois mochica. Divinité et pouvoir dans le Pérou ancien (Moche Kings: Divinity and Power in Ancient Peru) is an homage to one of the most important of the Pre-Columbian Peruvian civilizations, which flourished between the first and eighth centuries. The show will be accompanied by an ambitious program of related activities.

  Visit the official MEG website.

Images and information courtesy of MEG