History

The Foundation and the Museum

After more than one hundred years of history, the house that today hosts the Pedro de Osma Museum continues to be the most impressive building in the district of Barranco. It was built in 1906 by the eminent lawyer and politician Pedro de Osma y Pardo as his family’s summer house. Its design was commissioned to the prestigious architect Santiago Basurco, and is unique due to its French style, its Art Nouveau-stained glass windows, metal roofs and crystal chandeliers, as well as for its beautiful garden surroundings.

The collection gathered by Pedro de Osma has allowed to appreciate viceregal art and rescue pieces that otherwise would have been lost. His generosity in sharing his collection with anyone interested was proverbial; he received groups of guests and offered them a guided tour to appreciate the artistic heritage preserved in this residence in Barranco.

After Pedro de Osma’s death, his cousin Felipe de Osma y Porras became the first president of the foundations created in Pedro and Angélica’s name, which later merged into one, the Pedro y Angélica de Osma Gildemeister Foundation. The work of this non-profit organization has a cultural and social perspective: to promote the cultural diffusion and preservation of the works of art of the Pedro de Osma Museum and to support social projects for people in a situation of abandonment and vulnerability.

The work of Felipe de Osma y Porras was continued by his sons, Fernando and Felipe de Osma Elías. The former, as the president of the foundation, hired the colonial art historian Francisco Stastny to classify the collection and organize a team for its restoration. At that time, the collection’s restoration work continued. Thus, a complete restoration workshop was created, whose prestige has led its specialists to receive important commissions from other institutions, such as the processional figure of the Lord of Miracles, the Archer of Death by Baltazar Gavilán, and the Immaculate Conception by Angelino Medoro, among others.

Currently, the president in charge of the Foundation is Felipe de Osma Berckemeyer.

About the museum

In July 1988, after years of hard work, the Museum began receiving visitors by reservation. The Museum opened its doors to the public on June 1, 1996. Some years later (2004) the Silver Hall was inaugurated, conceived from Pedro de Osma’s heritage and the lending of two private collections: the Azzariti Foundation collection, and Guillermo Wiese de Osma’s numismatic collection.

In 2009, the museography of the first and second pavilion was renovated under the curatorship of Jaime Mariazza and Ricardo Estabridis. Finally, in 2017, the temporary exhibition hall was transformed into the Art from the Southern Andes Hall, as a sign of this region’s artistic and cultural continuity, with pieces from the viceregal period as well as from the Tiwanaku and Inca cultures, which come from an important collection from Cusco. In this hall, several of the most outstanding works of viceregal art from the de Osma collection are exhibited, where the Inca presence is manifest.

Undoubtedly, the Pedro de Osma Museum is the most important private museum of viceregal art in the country and constitutes a unique patronage effort by the Pedro y Angélica de Osma Gildemeister Foundation.

Organization

PEDRO Y ANGÉLICA DE OSMA GILDEMEISTER FOUNDATION

Administration board

Felipe de Osma Berckemeyer

PRESIDENT

Ana María de Osma Ayulo

Vice President

Diego de Osma Ayulo

Treasurer

Oscar de Osma Berckemeyer

Secretary

Hermano Hugo Martín Mejía Morales

Spokesperson

Padre Jorge Christopherson Petit

Spokesperson

Martín Fariña von Buchwald

Spokesperson

The Foundation Administration

Diego La Rosa Injoque

General Administrator

PEDRO DE OSMA MUSEUM

Pedro Pablo Alayza Tijero

Director

MUSEUM’S ADVISORY COUNCIL

Felipe de Osma Berckemeyer
Armando Andrade De Lucio
Cecilia Alayza de Losada
Alfonso Castrillón Vizcarra
Ramón Mujica Pinilla
María del Carmen De Reparaz Zamora