Lima Art Museum (MALI) is one of the leading museums in Peru. It is located on Paseo Colon, opposite the Museum of Italian art in the area Kerkado de Lima. Its total exhibition area of ​​4,500 sq.m, including permanent and temporary exhibition halls.

The museum was opened in 1959 by a group of patrons. This civic association was established in 1954 to promote the development of contemporary arts and culture in Peru. Metropolitan Municipality gave them the use of the building in the Exhibition Palace, constructed for the International Exhibition in 1872 in the territory of Exposition Park. After the exhibition, the palace became the headquarters of the country's Society of Fine Arts. Before invasion of Chile building was used as a field hospital, and then was used as a barracks for the Chilean army until 1883, when he was almost completely looted and destroyed.

Little restored building in 1905 opened its doors to the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History. Also within its walls has visited Peru, the Ministry of Development, the Chamber of Deputies, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Electoral Court and finally the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima. Over the years the building was reduced several times. In March 1956 it was decided to hold the next reconstruction of the palace under the direction of Peruvian Architects Héctor Velarde and Jose Garcia Bryce and assisted in the financing of France.

The first exhibition in the restored building of the palace took place in 1957 under the auspices of the French culture and industry. In 1961, after the opening of the Museum of Art, the President of Peru has donated to the museum collection, which began to collect his brother, historian, philosopher and lawyer Javier Prado and Ugarteche.

The permanent exhibition offers visitors explore the nine exhibition halls with exhibits from the pre-Columbian period to the present. The exhibition includes works of art Inca Moche, Nazca, Vicus. This collection consists of ceramics, textiles and gold and silver, which have been found in Peru. You can also see the works of Peruvian artists of the XIX century: José Gil de Castro, Ignacio Merino, Francisco Laso and Luis Montero, presents a picture of a historical nature, reflecting the Peruvian reality of those years.

Exhibition Hall of the XX century includes paintings by Peruvian artists such as Teofilo Castillo, José Sabogal, Urtega Mario Alvarado and Ricardo Grau, pictures of students of the National School of Fine Arts and avtohtonizma movement that flourished in the first decades of the twentieth century. Hall of Contemporary Art includes works of art dating from 1940, representing the Peruvian artist Fernando de Zizlo, Gerardo Chavez and others, demonstrating the artistic tendencies of the last decades in Peru late XX and early XXI century.

Since 1986, the Art Museum of Lima opened a library of books on art, architecture, crafts, photographs and museum. Currently, the library has more than 10,000 volumes, 620 titles of Peruvian and foreign magazines, a large collection of slides, video and other multimedia publications.

Since 1996, the museum building has begun the work of Peruvian Art Archive (AAP). Today, it contains data on 2500 500 artists Peru and thematic "portfolios" of artistic and cultural activity at the national level. The museum also holds courses and seminars for the general public. Art Museum also offers the possibility of teacher training in the arts.