The museum was first opened by the Italian Archaeological Mission in 1966 in the restored sixteenth-century Mausoleum of Abd al-Razzaq to display artifacts of the Islamic period.[1] Work was halted during the war with the Soviet Union after 1979 in which several of its artifacts were damaged. It was since been restored in 2004-2007. A number of artifacts unearthed in the Ghazni area are also found in museums in Kabul.[2]