The complex of buildings originated at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries became the property of the well-known patrons of the art Vojtěch Náprstek and his wife. They founded a specialized library in it as a result of which the house was one of Prague's centres of literary and scientific life. The base of their collections were gifts of the Czech travellers Emil Holub, A.V.Frič and J. Kořenský. Nowadays, a museum of native cultures of American Indians and Eskimoes, Pacific area and African nations is installed in it.