It was created by the Brazilian collector and philanthropist Ema Gordon Klabin (1907–1994), with the purpose of preserving and displaying her art collection, as well as promoting cultural, artistic and scientific activities.

The foundation is headquartered in Ema's former house in Jardins district, specially designed by architect Alfredo Ernesto Becker in the 1950s to hold her collection.

In 1948, she commissioned the architect Alfredo Ernesto Becker to project her a new house in a plot of land she inherited from her father, located in the Jardins district, in order to hold her growing collection.

She collaborated at the creation of the Lasar Segall Museum and the Magda Tagliaferro Foundation, and was also a member and supporter of the Sociedade de Cultura Artística and of the São Paulo Philarmonic Orchestra.

After Ema's death, her house remained closed for three years, until the end of 1996, when the architect Paulo de Freitas Costa was invited to set up a team to begin the activities and was later named curator of the institution.

The work of researching and cataloging the collection began in 1997, conducted through consultations with specialists and institutions within Brazil and abroad, aiming to solve questions related to identification, attribution and authenticity of the pieces, beside determining their artistic and historic value.

The definition that best applies to the Ema Klabin Foundation is that of a "house-museum", where a "closed collection" is permanently arranged according to the taste and wish of its creator, thus preserving the original character, idiosyncrasy and personality of the collector.

[7] In recent years, the Ema Klabin Foundation has been making efforts at disseminating information about the collection, including by lending pieces for temporary exhibitions held in museums of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre.

[7] The collection of African art comprises religious and ritual objects, executed in wood, ivory and bronze by distinct Ethnic groups of Western Africa, such as Ashanti, Bambara, Yoruba, Mossi, Dan, Baoulé, Bakongo and Bakuba, most of which dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[11][12] The Colonial Brazilian art is represented by a group of 24 Baroque sacred images, as well as by a number of polychromed wood carvings (columns, doorways, finials etc.).

From modernist Brazilian artists, the collection includes important paintings by Lasar Segall, Candido Portinari, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Tarsila do Amaral, as well as sculptures by Victor Brecheret, Bruno Giorgi and Bella Prado.

Outstanding among them are the religious and mythological scenes by Raffaellino del Garbo, Giacomo Francia, Giovanni Battista Gaulli and Sebastiano Ricci, besides the portraits by Alessandro Allori and Pompeo Batoni.

There are also landscapes and mythological scenes by Claude Lorrain, Gabriel Briard, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, a Still-life by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and works by the painters of the School of Paris, like Chaïm Soutine and Maurice de Vlaminck, beside two important canvases by Marc Chagall: À la campagne and Couple with flowers and a rooster.

[20][21] The European collection also include prints by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Francisco de Goya, Pablo Picasso, among others, as well as a number of Eastern icons.

[21] This small collection is composed by objects produced prior to the 16th century, proceeding from relevant archaeological sites in present-day Bolivia, Peru and Mexico, such as Tiwanaku, Chancay and Nazca.

Another highlight of the collection is the set of luxury books published by the Society of the One Hundred Bibliophiles of Brazil, illustrated by some of the most important Brazilian modernist artists.