The origins of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities goes back to when the Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson made his sensational discoveries in China in the 1920s, which are now on display in the new main exhibition "China before China. This formed the foundations of the museum instituted by the Swedish Parliament in 1926 with strong support from other Swedish Asia enthusiasts, not least King Gustaf VI Adolf.

The museum grew rapidly and came to contain an abundance of informative collections reflecting Asian cultures. In 1963 the museum reopened in Tyghuset, an old naval building on Skeppsholmen. There the collections were merged with the National Museum of Fine Art's collections of ancient Chinese and Indian sculpture, Far Eastern stoneware, porcelain and paintings.

Nicodemus Tessin the Younger designed the long yellow museum building, which dates from the end of the 1600s. It has been a rope Factory, a poorhouse and a lion's den and now: Meeting place Asia!