Yunnan museum is a comprehensive museum, founded in 1951. At present, there are 10 departments in the museum, namely: the Department of collection and protection; the Department of social education, which is responsible for the introduction of museum exhibitions to the public; the identification station in charge of Cultural Relics Identification and collection; the information department, which is responsible for the daily management and maintenance of Yunnan museum website and the collection of various books, periodicals and information materials; and The technical department for cultural relics restoration and protection; the Infrastructure Office for the construction of the new museum; the cooperation and exchange department for foreign affairs and academic exchange activities of the whole museum; the security department for cultural relics safety of the museum; the office for logistics support of the whole museum; the personnel education department for personnel management and examination of the whole museum. There are more than 100 employees, of which the proportion of middle and senior professional and technical personnel accounts for about half of the number of employees.

Since the 1950s, Yunnan Provincial Museum has carried out hundreds of scientific archaeological excavations, trial excavations and investigations in the whole province, including several major archaeological excavations with great influence:

From 1955 to 1960, four large-scale archaeological excavations were carried out in Shizhaishan ancient tomb group in Jinning. The tomb has become a typical representative of bronze culture in Dianchi Lake area, which is called "Shizhaishan culture" (also known as "Dian culture") by the world archaeology circle. 50 tombs of the Western Han Dynasty were excavated in the cemetery, and more than 4000 artifacts were unearthed, especially the golden "seal of the king of Yunnan" was found in tomb 6, which confirmed the record of "Yunnan" in "historical records · biography of the southwest Yi".

Lijiashan ancient tomb group excavated in 1972 is another important site of Shizhaishan culture. There are 27 ancient tombs excavated in the cemetery, more than 1300 pieces of various cultural relics from the Warring States period to the Han Dynasty, further enriching the connotation of Yunnan culture. Among them, the most representative are a group of bronze textile tools, including warping rod, brush shaped tool, shuttle knife, bow shaped tool, spinning wheel, needle box, cylinder, cone, needle, winding board, etc., which are important materials for the study of Yunnan textile history.

From 1975 to 1976, 79 ancient tombs were excavated in Wanjiaba, Chuxiong, in the spring and Autumn Period - the Western Han Dynasty. There are 1245 unearthed cultural relics, of which the most important one is the five bronze drums of the spring and Autumn period. This is also the earliest bronze drum found in the world so far. From 1977 to 1982, the ancient tombs of batatai, Zhujie, Qujing were excavated seven times in succession. On the huge mound more than 7 meters high, the ancient tombs of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty are piled on top of each other. Among them, from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, more than 200 pieces of cultural relics such as bronzes, pottery, jade ware, etc. have been unearthed in the tombs, among which the most important ones are bronze drums, bronze cauldrons, buckles, spears, spears, swords, pottery tripods, etc. The tombs of Nanzhao and Ming Dynasties are crematorium with few burial objects, but the forms of crematorium pots are complex and diverse, which provides a scientific basis for the stages of Yunnan crematorium. The burial area of batatai ancient tomb has lasted for nearly 2000 years and experienced several dynasties. This peculiar phenomenon is rare in the history of Chinese archaeology.

As a major province of national culture, archaeological excavation has proved that the diversity of Yunnan's history and culture is consistent with that of multi-ethnic provinces. Over the past 50 years, Yunnan Provincial Museum has more than 190000 bronzes, ancient coins, ceramics, ancient calligraphy and painting, tablet stickers, stamps and various arts and crafts after years of archaeological excavation, investigation and collection, social acquisition and donation. It is the museum with the largest collection of cultural relics in Yunnan Province. Among the thousands of precious cultural relics, there are more than 1000 cultural relics recognized as national first-class cultural relics. Some cultural relics, such as the gilded Knight's shell storage vessel unearthed from Shizhaishan, Jinning, niuhu copper case unearthed from Lijiashan, Jiangchuan, the statue of Guanyin unearthed from the Three Pagodas of Dali, the gold crown inlaid with jewels in Ming Dynasty unearthed from the tomb of the Mu family of wangjiaying, Chenggong, the travel map axis of Guoxi mountain in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the visit to Dai map axis by Huang Gongwang of Yanxi in the Yuan Dynasty, are national treasure level cultural relics. The most distinctive collection of Yunnan museum is the bronze ware of Yunnan culture, the Buddhist relics of Nanzhao and Dali period, and the colorful cultural relics of ethnic minorities in modern times.

Exhibition, collection and scientific research are the three functions of the museum. Yunnan Provincial Museum is the main unit of cultural relics display and exhibition in Yunnan Province, and it is a national first-class Museum. It has held exhibitions of different contents with rich collections, comprehensively and systematically displayed the social, historical and cultural features of Yunnan Province, and won the general praise of the society.

Exhibition hall scale
There are 130000 pieces of various collections in the museum, including ancient bronzes with national and local characteristics, with a number of more than 10000 pieces and a wide variety. Some of them are unique to Yunnan. In addition, the collection of a number of ancient paintings and calligraphy works also has local characteristics. For example, in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, the paintings and calligraphy works of Jinning monks in Yunnan were collected in the museum, with the exception of a few in other provinces and regions, more than 90% of the works were collected in the museum. The works of Miao Jiahui, a late Qing court painter, are also collected in the museum.