The Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw was founded in 1973 on the basis of a private collection of oriental art amassed and later donated to the Polish State by Andrzej Wawrzyniak, its director and curator-in-chief for lifetime.
Andrzej Wawrzyniak was born in 1931 in Warsaw. At the age of sixteen he boarded the full-rigged school ship "Dar Pomorza", then sailed on twelve ships, moving up from a deck boy to officer in the Polish Merchant Marine. In the 1956 he joined Polish diplomatic service, to be promoted to the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary in 1972. His first mission was being a member of the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Vietnam from 1956 to 1960. Next 30 years he spent on different diplomatic assignments in Indonesia, Laos, Nepal and Afghanistan. Andrzej Wawrzyniak has become an internationally recognized authority in the field of Oriental studies at home and abroad, a member of the Oriental Studies Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences and of many other Polish and foreign scholars' associations and research institutions. During the last 35 years he visited almost all countries of Asia and the Pacific.
The largest impact on his life was his diplomatic assignment to Indonesia lasting nearly 9 years during the 1960-ties. It was there where he professionally started to collect Oriental objects of art: side arms, masks, theatrical puppets, ceramics, traditional sculptures and paintings as well as contemporary pieces of art. After his return to Poland, he donated his, numbering over 3 000 objects, collection to the Polish State. This resulted in founding the Nusantara Archipelago Museum in Warsaw of which Andrzej Wawrzyniak was assigned it's curator-in-chief and director for life.