During the War of the Pacific, the Chilean army, after taking Lima, ransacked various items along with much capital stock from the library.

[1] There are current talks between the director of the library and Chilean authorities on identifying works which might belong to Peru that would be eventually returnable.

To mark the occasion, the then Minister of Education, Javier Sota Nadal, commissioned a symphonic poem from Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez.

The work titled, "America Salvaje", is inspired by the poem "Blasón" by José Santos Chocano.

President Alejandro Toledo and National Library director Sinesio López were present at the inauguration.