Peru gold museum says gleaming again after scandal

LIMA, Peru, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Peru's famed gold museum, disgraced last year when the government revealed almost a third of its treasured artifacts were fake, has purged its sham pieces in a bid to rebuild its reputation as one of Latin America's finest collections, museum officials said. 

"This is a closed case. ... We are not exhibiting a single piece that is not authentic," Gold Museum of Peru Director Victoria Mujica said on Tuesday. "The pieces (being displayed) have a high artistic and cultural value." 

Gnarled mummies crouch in the museum's chilly, dim halls, their knees drawn up to leathery chests, while the walls are flanked with gold chalices, giant nose rings, and shimmering masks shedding emerald tears -- only a few of the more than 10,000 artifacts, some of which date back to 2000 B.C. 

The museum, which sees up to 65,000 visitors a year, has long been a top tourist lure in this poor Andean nation that is home to scores of native groups and was dominated by the Inca empire until the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. 

But last July, the private museum's luster was dulled when state consumer protection agency INDECOPI stepped in after a visitor tipped off officials that some pieces might not be the authentic pre-Columbian treasures they were billed as. 

INDECOPI concluded that 27 percent -- or some 4,200 pieces -- of the museum's total collection were counterfeit reproductions, some not even made from precious metals. 

The much-heralded announcement was a sharp blow to the museum, which has toured its wares in more than 120 cities worldwide and which has been a obligatory stop for many of the around 1 million tourists who visit Peru each year. 

BOUNDING BACK FROM SCANDAL 

Mujica said her father, museum founder Miguel Mujica Gallo, had mistakenly bought many of the phony pieces in the last decade after he lost his sight. He died in August at 91 years. 

"He was the collector and he kept buying artifacts," she said. The elder Mujica, who came from an affluent land-holding family, began his private collection in the late 1940s with a few dozen pieces. He opened the museum -- which also displays a wealth of weapons from around the world -- in 1968. 

Many of the treasures from pre-Columbian Peru -- Latin America's top gold producer and eighth worldwide -- were melted down as booty by the Spanish conquistadors, and many more have been smuggled out over the centuries to private collections or museums in other countries. 

But Victoria Mujica stressed that the Gold Museum -- which its founder called his "tribute to wise, age-old Andean culture" in his will -- had put the scandal behind it and was on its way not only to regaining lost face but modernizing its presentation and launching a new round of international tours. 

"Everything has been resolved and ... the museum is now ready to compete internationally," said one INDECOPI official who requested anonymity. 

The museum -- whose collection Mujica says has an "incalculable" dollar value -- is appealing a government fine of around $17,700. 

Mujica said the museum would also send exhibits abroad, including a tour in England later this year as well as planned shows in China, Japan, the United States and Italy. 

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