The Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum

About

The Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum was founded in 1975 by the Association for the Conservation of Folk Traditions. It conserves about 4,000 items, including marionettes, marottes, hand puppets, shadow puppets, theatrical machines and playbills from all over the world. Among these, it houses the largest and most complete collection of pupi from Palermo, Catania and Naples, used in the Opera dei pupi, that is Sicilian traditional puppetry, proclaimed by UNESCO a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001. Besides, you can find many other objects used in the other puppet traditions which have obtained the same award: the Japanese Ningyo Johruri Bunraku, the Indonesian Wayang Kulit, the Cambodian Sbek Thom and The collection also includes important contemporary artworks, created by Enrico Baj, Tadeusz Kantor and Renato Guttuso. In 2017, it received the ICOM Italy's award as Museum of the Year.

At a glance

• Typical visit: about 30 minutes