"L'or des Incas"
… Much better than the “Pinacothèque”, in Paris. From September 10 to February 6, the Paris museum offers a collection of nearly 300 pieces – pottery, jewelry, fabrics … – from 3000 years of history. This is one of the first shortcuts of the exhibition, which announces “the gold of the Incas”, while the Incas only cover a very small minority of the collection.
But this is not the most important. We can obviously appreciate the effort of the exhibition to share the knowledge of civilizations that preceded the Incas (Mochica, Huari, Sipan …) And enjoy the beauty, the precision and the rarity of the items. But the museography is close to zero. And sometimes it just spoils the depth of the collection. It starts with the price, which will remain prohibitive for some (10 euros and up to 12 euros if you previously book). Add to this the price of explanations. Because no explanation is given to the pieces of art. The only texts involve elements of context and civilization. If you want comments, you must: first have an iPhone, then download the application of the exhibition. And, once having heard the comments on three objects… then pay for the rest! Three euros more.
Foreign visitors, go on your way! The text is entirely in French (for those who would like to benefit from the exhibition to learn French … bad idea, the texts contain several spelling mistakes!) Add to that the very narrow rooms, a poor organization, a disconcerting system of captions (numbers in any order designate objects, and the captions are sometimes located on another wall …) and a random development of collections. No more! I want to say that unfortunately the Pinacothèque is symptomatic of many French museums: too little fun, too little explanation. Far from the professionalism of Anglo-saxon museums and even many Latin American museums. Neither elitist nor general… so what?
Too bad again, because the collection is sublime and worth a look.
Pinacothèque de Paris
28, place de la Madeleine
75008 Paris
"L'or des Incas"
"L'or des Incas"
"L'or des Incas"
"L'or des Incas"
"L'or des Incas"
"L'or des Incas"
Barrio latino 
I totally agree with your comment about the poor “museography” and organisation of the Pinacothèque. I’m French, and leaving close to Paris, I enjoy visiting those exhibits that bring so many rare and precious pieces of History to us. For the “Incas”, I paid an incredibly high fare to get tickets by Internet, in order to avoid queing up for hours; I was charged an extra cost for having them printed at home, can you imagine that ? And I have never had such a bad experience, except maybe 2 years ago when the famous “pottery” Chinese Soldiers where put on display….. in the same Pinacothèque !
No room for the people to turn around the statues, or the show cases, very little explanation, no logical place where to find it, no maps to see what they’re talking about, no translation for foreign visitors, poor lights… We were so disappointed, it was hard for my kids to find a real interest in this poor and crowded exhibit, even if the objets themselves were of outstanding historical, artistical and emotional value; we are used to going to the most various museums in the world, and usually like it ! But the Pinacothèque is definitly (and sadly) not worth your money !