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Type | Art museum |
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Website | www |
Guayaquil Municipal Museum (Spanish: Museo Municipal de Guayaquil) is a museum in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It contains artifacts, objects and historical items relating to the history of Guayaquil. It is considered the most important of the city and one of the best in the country. It is located in the center of the city of Guayaquil, in the same building as the Municipal Library. Admission is free, but passports are required.[1]
The museum has its origins in 1863 when an industrial museum was started by the politician and writer Pedro Carbo Noboa,[2][3] making it the oldest in Ecuador, but it was not until 1908 that the museum was officially founded.[4] The first director was Camilo Destruge Illingworth.[5] The museum has gone through a variety of moves and renovations, acquiring its own building for the first time in 1916.[6]
In 1971 the sculptor Yela Loffredo became the director of the museum. She found exhibits lying on the floor wrapped in newspaper. There was no basement for storage and the lights didn't work. She and her daughter, Tanya Loffredo had to sort things out.[7]
The museum has the following rooms:[8]
The museum also has a collection of tsantsas, or shrunken heads.[12]
In 2022 there was a retrospective exhibition of Yela Loffredo's work in "her" museum.[13] The poet and writer Rosa Amelia Alvarado made an open request to the city's mayor to suggest that the Guayaquil Municipal Museum should be renamed after Yela Laffredo.[13]