The museum was founded upon a collection of art objects from
Nepal,
Tibet and
Ladakh that
Giuseppe Tucci had acquired during his travels in 1928–1948. Later acquisitions included a notable group of artifacts from the
Gandhara area, that had been acquired from the archaeological missions of the Italian Institute for Middle and Far East (IsMEO) to the Buddhist and protohistoric sites of
Swat, namely the
Butkara Stupa,
Barikot, Panr, and Aligrama among others. Other holdings include items from the Palace of Mas'ud III and the Buddhist shrine of Tape Sardar at
Ghazni,
Afghanistan, and the prehistoric city of Shahr-e Sokhteh, in eastern
Iran. ==See also==