Part of the Gardiner Signature Lecture Series

The Diane Wolfe Lecture

How much is our image of the past influenced by museums? For archaeological objects, the distance between the original contexts and modern collection and exhibition practices is likely to have altered the role and meaning of these objects. Museums exhibiting ancient art are not neutral windows to the past, but rather, spaces where new relationships are created between people and things.

Moche art, produced on the north coast of Peru between the 3rd and the 9th centuries CE, is particularly well represented in museums and has been given pride of place in several recent exhibitions in North America and Europe. Archaeological research in the past twenty year has also led to great advances in our understanding of the Moche, especially regarding the variability of Moche experiences. These advances, however, rarely find echo in museum collections and exhibitions.