Established in 1875 and opened in 1876[1][2] by Luigi Pigorini, from 2016, its collections became part of the newly instituted Museo delle Civiltà, currently directed by Andrea Viliani.

[4] By the time of Pigorini's death in 1925, the museum had amassed more than 170,000 items.

[4] One important collection of the Pigorini houses is Neolithic artifacts from Lake Bracciano.

The museum also conserves the Praeneste fibula, the oldest known inscription in the Latin language.

[citation needed] It also houses the upper paleolithic Venus of Savignano.