In 1925 Pope Pius XI organized a major event, the Vatican Exposition, to introduce the cultural, artistic and spiritual traditions of all peoples. The great success of the exhibition - which displays more than 100,000 pieces and works of art from around the world to more than a million visitors - convinced the Pope to turn the temporary exhibition into a permanent exhibition; Thus the Missionary Ethnological Museum was born and was housed in the Lateran Palace until it was moved in the early seventies to its present location within the Vatican Museums.