In 2006, the Museo delle Culture reached an agreement with the government of the Canton Ticino on the Nodari Fund and Collection. According to this agreement, the Canton of Ticino remained the owner of the Nodari Fund and Collection, but agreed to permanently lend the entire collection and the documentary fund to the Museo delle Culture. 

The collection consists of a thousand artworks, two large river boats, almost 6,000 pictures, 71 documentary films and over 60 hours of tape recordings, collected by Alfredo and Emma Nodari during their journeys to Africa (notably in the Congo) in the 1950s and 1960s. 

The most important works of the collection are possibly the two pillars from the Bakuba royal palace in Kasai (Congo), which were placed in the museum entrance hall at the Heleneum. 

Look at the exhibition