The Association for the conservation of Popular Traditions, founded by Antonio Pasqualino in 1995 who was a surgeon and anthropologist, established the International Puppet Museum in 1975. Due to the changing economic and social landscape in Italy in the 1960s, many puppeteers abandoned their careers for something more lucrative. The association opened the museum with the goal of rejuvenating the puppetry scene in Sicily.

The museum houses a wide range of puppets, including the largest and most complete collection of pupi from the Sicilian-based Opera dei Pupi, a  marionette theatrical representation of Frankish romantic poems that dates back to the early 1800s.