The museum has a collection of more than 23,500 Chinese, Egyptian, Korean, Indian, Japanese and other far east and Asian artefacts.

The museum's initial collection arose from the sale of the antiquities of Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, from Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.

The collection arrived in late 1950 being initially housed in two rooms (one for display, one for storage) in Hatfield College.

[4] The establishment of Raymond Dawson as lecturer in Indian religions and philosophy in 1952 led to the collection expanding into the Far East.

With part of the collection still held at various sites and the success of the initial exhibitions potential donors were sought for the formal establishment of a museum.