Director Tancred Bănățeanu continued the research, documentation, acquisition and exhibition activities led by Alexandru Tzigara Samuracaș, but with the specific accents of the communist period. The museum made the transition from the management of an art historian to that of an ethnographer, in the person of Tancred Bănățeanu. The focus was shifted from the artistic characteristics of the decoration to those related to the social and ethnic contexts, the usefulness of the objects, the constructive elements and the type of raw material from which they were made.

During Tancred Bănățeanu’s directorship, numerous field campaigns were undertaken to research and acquire objects according to the spatial criteria of villages, groups of settlements along river valleys and historical and ethnographic areas. The objects acquired by the museum also reflected the crafts and occupations of the period. In this context, Tancred Bănățeanu made a practical and theoretical distinction between folk art and handicraft objects.

Thus, the museum’s collections recorded their greatest quantitative increase during the Tancred Banateanu period.