Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)

3,000 years of Peruvian art in an Eiffel-designed iron pavilion

Lima's principal fine-arts museum, MALI, occupies the Palacio de la Exposición — a 19th-century iron-and-glass pavilion designed with interior plans by Gustave Eiffel and built for Lima's 1872 International Exhibition. The permanent collection covers 3,000 years of Peruvian art across three floors: pre-Columbian textiles and Moche ceramics, Escuela Cuzqueña religious paintings of the colonial period, republican-era portraiture, and 20th-century modernism (Mario Urteaga, Fernando de Szyszlo).

Strong on the colonial and republican periods. The temporary exhibitions are often the best in the country, and the gardens behind the building host a low-key open-air bar in the warmer months.

things to do museum
A story
The museum building, the Palacio de la Exposición, was designed in 1872 with interior plans by the studio of a young Gustave Eiffel. It survived an aerial bombing in the 1881 Battle of Lima largely intact and became Lima's first permanent exhibition hall.