The idea of setting up a Diocesan Museum in Brescia is relatively recent. Initiative took care Monsignor Angelo Pietrobelli in the second half of the seventies of the twentieth century; those identified in the convent of St. Joseph, once the seat of the Observant Franciscans, the right place to welcome the first group of works coming mostly from churches no longer officiate and therefore difficult to use. In 1978, the Bishop of Brescia Luigi Morstabilini canonically instituted the "Foundation of Religion" called "Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art." The museum was opened on December 23 of the same year, and was located in the first two cloisters of the monastery. April 21, 1988, Bishop Bruno Foresti, replaced the previous statute with a new one, in which it was stated that, in addition to the restoration and preservation of works of art and materials of the Diocese threatened with ruin and dispersion, are aims of museum also the restoration, the cultural and educational activities. Meanwhile reached its completion the acquisition of the cloister of the complex of St. Joseph, State property, long and complex process that has allowed, in the late eighties, to place the collections of the Diocesan Museum in a more suitable and prestigious. In 2007, Bishop Giulio Sanguineti endowed the Diocesan Museum of a new statute, simultaneously launching the process for the civil recognition of the Canonica foundation.
On February 3, 2010, the Ministry of the Interior recognized as the Diocesan Museum Foundation of Religion and Cult.

Notes:

The Diocesan Museum will be closed from Friday, January 10, to Friday, January 31, 2014 for the usual winter closure.
It reopens Saturday, February 1, 2014.