Lima's museums 'host wealth of gold artefacts'

Gold headdresses are among the pre-Columbian artefacts on show at the Museo Rafael Larco Herrera museum in Lima, Peru, according to the New York Times.

The newspaper states in its travel guide that the museum, which also hosts permanent exhibitions of Inca and other ancient gold objects from across the Americas, is the one museum that travellers should ensure they visit.

Another "popular choice" is the city's Gold Museum of Peru, the newspaper says. This institution's exhibitions covers several centuries of Peru's history with many artefacts including pre-Inca gold from the Frias, Chancay, Vicus and Nasca civilisations.

Gold objects featured in the museum's collection include embossed and weaved nose ornaments, figurines, bracelets, earrings, belts, flat and embossed crowns, shin protectors, wristbands and funerary masks.

In addition to its ancient collection, the museum also hosts over 20,000 pieces of weaponry from different cultures from around the world. These include a 14th century sword embossed in gold that belonged to Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizzaro and a pair of Colt .45 revolvers, which were presented to the museum by Miguel Aleman, who served as president of Mexico between 1946 and 1952.