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Three thousands years of art and heritage from Peru from mysterious heads to precious materials, stunning gold work and ceramics go on display on Wednesday in the Petit Palais museum in Paris.
"Peru: from the art of the Chavin to the Incas" featuring some 200 works gathered from 15 Peruvian museums was due to be inaugurated Tuesday by Eliane Karp de Toledo, wife of Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo.
"We wanted to show that pre-Colombus Peru was far from being just the Incas," said scientific curator Patrick Lemasson.
"The Incas were just a century in Peru's history. Here we have more than 3,000 years of history, which starts some 1,500 years B.C," he added.
The exhibition is arranged chronologically passing through the extraordinary diversity of some 13 cultures with their different art works.
The first part juxtaposes the dark and sombre ceramics from the northern Cupisnique culture with the colourful material used to wrap mummies and the ceramics of the southern Paracas culture.
A large part of the exhibition has been devoted to the northern Mochica with their realistic "vases-portraits" and ochre and red ceramics representing fantastical animals, fruits or erotic scenes.
Four pieces, including three in gold, have come from the royal tomb of Sipan discovered in 1987.
There are also examples of the works of the Recuay, the only culture to use stone for sculpture, as well as golden crowns, necklaces and earrings from the Sican-Lambayeque and Chimu cultures.
The splendour of the Inca empire is represented by ceramics and materials which show that "the Incas were the Romans of pre-Colombus America, they took a lot from the previous cultures," Lemasson said.
The exhibition runs until July 2 and is open every day from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm except Mondays, with late nights until 8:00 pm on Tuesday.
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AFPEntertainment-arts-France-Peru
AFP 040933 GMT 04 06
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