National Gallery of Australia Draws Over 160,000 People for Gold and the Incas: Lost Worlds of Peru Exhibition

The National Gallery of Australia today announced the Gold and the Incas: Lost worlds of Peru exhibition attracted 160,647 visitors from all over Australia to Canberra, after closing on Easter Monday, 21 April 2014.

The National Gallery of Australia staged three major blockbusters consecutively for the Canberra Centenary year commencing with Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the Moulin Rouge followed by Turner from the Tate: The Making of a Master and Gold and the Incas: Lost worlds of Peru. The accumulated visitation for these three exhibitions amounts to 484,475 attendees.

Ron Radford AM, Director of the National Gallery of Australia said today, 'The Gold and the Incas exhibition attracted over 160,000 visitors from across Australia and overseas, with almost 68% travelling from interstate to Canberra, and injecting an estimated $33.5 million* into the ACT economy'.

'Holding three back-to-back blockbuster exhibitions has been a challenging but rewarding experience for the Gallery and for Canberra. The total estimated economic impact for the ACT from the staging of Toulouse-Lautrec and Turner from the Tate and Gold and the Incas amounts to over $103 million, and we are very pleased these world-class exhibitions have delivered so much value to the ACT economy'. Ron Radford said.

'What is also so pleasing is the great family audience we attracted to Gold and the Incas. With the support of the Yulgilbar Foundation we doubled the size of previous Family Activity Rooms for this exhibition and offered a range of interactive experiences for children relating to the ancient cultures of Peru. The room proved extremely popular with 28,286 attendees, creating a new record, and reflecting the substantial proportion of Family tickets sold for this exhibition which is more than double the number sold for any other exhibition,' said Radford.

ACT Minister for Tourism and Event Andrew Barr MLA said, 'The ACT Government's ongoing partnership with the National Gallery of Australia continues to deliver an outstanding return on investment and reinforces the value that major events play in providing reasons for people to visit Canberra'.

'The tourism industry currently contributes $1.8 billion to the ACT economy and is one of the territory's largest private sector employers – supporting 17,000 jobs', Minister Barr said.

Gold and the Incas was the fifth highest attended exhibition held at the Gallery in the last thirteen years. The remarkable exhibition featured more than 200 works of art including spectacular gold pieces, jewellery, textiles, ceramic, feathered objects and sculptures created thousands of years ago to decorate nobility in life and in death. Gold and the Incas was the first comprehensive exhibition of ancient Peruvian art ever staged in Australia.

Interestingly, the most popular work in the exhibition was not a golden artefact or piece of jewellery but a textile, the Mantle with flying figures 100 BC - 200 AD wool and cotton from the collection of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú.

The National Gallery of Australia would like to acknowledge all of our valued Partners for their generous support and in particular our Presenting Partners the ACT Government through VisitCanberra and the Australian Government International Exhibitions Insurance Program, and Principle Partners National Australia Bank and the Nine Entertainment Group. We also acknowledge longstanding sponsors Yulgilbar Foundation, Qantas and Qantas Freight and new Major Partner, PromPeru. We extend our gratitude to the National Gallery of Australia Council Exhibitions Fund, Novotel Canberra and Canberra Airport and media partners: JC Decaux, Win Television, ABC Radio and Fairfax Media's The Canberra Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

The lending institutions for Gold and the Incas: Lost Worlds of Peru include, under the Ministerio de Cultura del Perú: Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, Lima, Museo Nacional de Sicàn, Ferreñafe, Museo Arqueológico Nacional Brüning, Lambayeque, Sala de Oro del Museo Municipal Vicús, Piura, Museo de Sitio de Chan Chan, Dos Cabezas, Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, Lambayeque. Other lending institutions include: Universidad Nacional de Trujillo Museo de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia, Trujillo, Museo Oro del Perú, Lima, Museo Larco, Lima and Cusco, Fundación Museo Amano, Lima.

A selection of print quality images is available for download from www.nga.gov.au/mediacentre

*Projected economic impact has been calculated by independent research company Repucom International.