Dear Geoff,

I suspect that the word "treasures" is used in advertising, even for state
museum exhibits, because ads are designed by advertising and promotional
professionals and not by curators and archaeologists. The museum must be
concerned with the "door", which is why an ad professional designs the ads.
If the public is not fascinated or excited by an event, they will not support
the venue, and the venue can't support the presentation without the support
of the public, and so on... So, considering an exhibit title from the point
of view of the promoter, who wants to appeal to as large a share of the
population as possible, (and most of those people probably not involved in
the work that eventually makes an exhibit possible), consider these two
exhibit titles: (through their eyes, remember)
"Splendors of Peru -- Pre-Columbian Treasures of the Incas"
or
"A Fascinating Exhibit of Pre-Columbian Artifacts"

Impressions are formed quickly. The public's very first impression arrives in
the form of an ad. Romantic wording and pleasing syntax fire the imagination.

Carol