He is best known for creating a three-metre tall statue of the garuda bird for the Indonesia Pavilion at the New York World Fair in the United States of America in 1964, and another one for Expo 70 held in Osaka, Japan.

Suteja Neka trained as an elementary school teacher but decided to give up teaching in order to help his father present his artwork.

In 1975, Neka travelled overseas with the Dutch artist Rudolf Bonnet where during visits to various museums he saw fine examples of Balinese art which couldn't be seen in Indonesia.

[4] Established in 1976 the museum was officially opened on 7 July 1982 by Dr Daoed Joesoef, the Indonesian Minister for Education and Culture.

[3] Arranged over a hectare the museum is designed to reflect the traditional architecture of a Balinese family compound, with visitors encouraged to walk through a series of galleries, starting with classical paintings and progressing to contemporary Indonesian art, followed by art created in and influenced by Bali by foreign artists.

Classical Puppet Style Painting : Originating from the 17th century or earlier, these artworks are usually anonymous but include work by Mangku Mura and I Nyoman Arcana.

NAM has the biggest collections of Arie Smit with the earliest painting from the Maestro dated to 1940s when he was still deployed as a Dutch soldier in Cideng, Jakarta.

Kris : This collection came about when in the mid-2000s, Neka developed an interest in kris spurred by a realization of his swadharma (self-obligation) as a member of the Pande (blacksmith) clan and as a descendant of Pande Pan Nedeng, the royal blacksmith for the court of Ida I Dewa Agung Djelantik, the 19th century king of Peliatan.

[3] He spent most of the following decade traveling across Bali and to Java –considered Indonesia's kris heartland acquainting himself with notable mpu (kris-makers) and scholars as he built up his collection.