Museo Nazionale delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari

From 1 September 2016 the Museum became part of the Museum of Civilizations, set up by art. 6 of the Ministerial Decree of 23 January 2016 n. 44, under the direction ad interim of prof. Leandro Ventura

Museum of Civilizations:

• National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions
• National Prehistoric and Ethnographic "Luigi Pigorini"
• Museum of the Middle Ages
• National Museum of Oriental Art "Giuseppe Tucci"

Structure as a result of the DM 44 update 01/23/2016 Reorganization of the Ministry of goods and cultural activities and tourism

The National Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions is the only state museum in Italy with specific expertise in the field of materials ETHNOGRAPHY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, its purpose is the documentation of popular traditions of all the Italian regions and preserves over one hundred thousand documents, acquired from 1906 to today .

History The Museum was founded by the Italian Ethnography Show held in Rome in 1911 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Italy and has had for its founder Lamberto Loria (1855-1913), ethnologist, who after making several expeditions to study outside Europe , he realized during a short stay in the Sannio, also in Italy in the early twentieth century it had to do ethnographic research. It was necessary to document the agro-pastoral culture which at the time was undergoing major changes due to the progressive industrialization of near and far areas and the consequent emigration from rural centers.

Collections Loria collected over thirty thousand items for the Exhibition of 1911, with the help of co-workers, teachers and local scholars, who were active in different regions. On completion of the exposure, it was proposed the establishment of a national museum, but the death of the same Loria, which occurred in 1913, and the story of the First World War delayed the implementation of the project.

When in 1923 he was issued the decree establishing, he took over the problem of the lack of a suitable venue. Collections of objects, closed in boxes, were deposited during those years in the basements of museums, and finally landed at Villa d'Este in Tivoli. Only in 1956 the entire collection was transferred in the EUR palace, which now houses the Museum. Much of the exhibits can be dated to the period between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, but there are many exceptions: often, for example, wooden artefacts date back to the eighteenth century or early nineteenth century.

archives All the documentary material of the museum is currently accessible to the public through a number of services: the library, the historical archive that preserves documents related to the acquisition of objects, the Cabinet of prints, the photo archive, sound archive, the archive visual anthropology, ethnographic stores, office inventory cataloging and loans, the restoration laboratory and the audiovisual laboratory. The fact Museum, for its specificity and uniqueness throughout the national territory, is also a data collection center, research and documentation.