The Museum of Peoples and Cultures was founded in 1910 thanks to the work of the PIME missionaries under the name of Indo-Chinese ethnographic museum.

The Museum of Peoples and Cultures is dedicated to the knowledge of non-European cultures and houses a diverse collection of items from Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America.

The museum is located within the premises of the PIME Center in Milan on Via Monte Rosa and since September 2019, it has been presented with a completely renovated exhibition that includes multimedia stations designed to actively engage visitors and make the museum's content accessible and easily enjoyable.

The collections are arranged according to thematic strands ranging from the great Asian philosophical and religious traditions to everyday objects.

The first collections of the Museum of Peoples and Cultures were brought to Italy by Father Carlo Salerio, who departed in 1852 for Papua New Guinea with the first expedition of what would later become the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (P.I.M.E). However, only a few pieces were saved from that initial collection, as most were destroyed due to air raids on Milan in 1943.

Archival photos show us an image of a museum full of unusual objects and stuffed animals, intended to amaze visitors and transport them to the exotic atmosphere that the imagination attributed to distant countries at that time. From that moment on, the museum underwent a long process of evolution, both in its exhibition and its purposes, which led it in 1994 to take on its current name of Museum of Peoples and Cultures, emphasizing its focus on people and relationships.