The collection of the Museum of Asian Art numbers more than fifteen thousand artefacts from China, Japan, India, Nepal, Tibet, and the countries of central Asia. It was established in the late 1920s and is the only cultural institution dedicated to the antiquities and art of Asia in Greece. The museum is set in the magnificent Palace of St. Michael and St. George, built between 1819 and 1824 as the British Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands residence sir Thomas Maitland. The building served as the headquarters of the eponymous order, as well as the home of the Ionian Senate and Parliament. From 1864 to 1913, it was also used as a summer residence by the kings of Greece.