The Museum of Chinese and Ethnographic Art of the Saverian Missionaries in Parma began in 1901, expressly desired by the founder Guido M. Conforti. At the conclusion of the grand Universal Exhibition in Turin, organized in 1898, Senator Fedele Lampertico donated some valuable pieces to Monsignor Guido M. Conforti, bishop of Parma and founder of the Saverians. The museum represents an artistic and documentary container of exceptional importance, the result of a long and tortuous journey. For several decades, the Saverians operated exclusively in Chinese territory, and it was precisely to the missionaries present in China that Conforti turned, asking them to periodically send significant objects of local art and life to Parma. The last direct entry from China through the missionaries was in 1947; with the communist takeover, the Saverian mission in China came to an end. Since the 1960s, ethnographic material arriving from other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America has enriched the museum with cultural aspects, a testimony to the life of three continents.

With the inauguration on December 1, 2012, the Museum of Chinese and Ethnographic Art underwent a radical and ambitious restructuring, an investment in the field of culture aimed primarily at visitors and schools of all kinds and levels.

The Museum preserves the commitment of the Saverian Institute to culture and the enhancement of the great religious and cultural traditions in favor of Mother Earth and globality. A museum with a strong international identity for the value of its materials and the modernity of its architectural and exhibition solutions.