In 2012, The Bavarian National Museum restituted a bronze statue to the heirs of a Jewish collector named August L. Meyer whose art collection was seized by Nazis before he was murdered in the Holocaust.

The displayed sculptures were created by noted sculptors including Erasmus Grasser, Tilman Riemenschneider, Hans Multscher, Hans Leinberger, Adam Krafft, Giovanni Bologna, Hubert Gerhard, Adriaen de Vries, Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, Johann Baptist Straub, Ferdinand Tietz [de], Ignaz Günther, Matthias Steinl, and Ludwig Schwanthaler.

The museum is famous for its collections of courtly culture, musical instruments, furniture, oil paintings, sketches, clocks, stoneware, majolica, miniatures, porcelain and faience, and its statues.

The Kasten der Heiligen Kunigunde (jewelry box of Holy Cunegonde), is a unique masterpiece made in the year 1000 in Scandinavia of wood, bronze and narwhal tusk.

Special attractions are the great knight's hall with the ceremonial armor of the 15th and 16th Century and the true to scale wooden Renaissance models of the Bavarian ducal capitals.

From the possession of the Wittelsbach the Bavarian National Museum also presents unique Baroque objects from all areas of craft and artistic production, such as ostentatious furniture, jewelry, weapons, musical instruments, watches, glasses, miniatures, ivories and bronzes.

Thus, from the estate of Maximilian's father King Ludwig I are magnificent presents of Napoleon Bonaparte which arrived at the Museum, a result of the strong connection between France and Bavaria.

The collection of fine glass and porcelain and ceramics includes many objects of high artistic and technical quality of the most important centers of this epoch in Europe and the United States.

The museum displays a major collection of Art Nouveau objects, including the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, René Lalique, Émile Gallé and several Bavarian artists.

Many of the scenes display wonderful craftsmanship and detailed workmanship, some are worked in precious materials, others show exotic elements, like a Flight into Egypt intended to astonish 18th century viewers with the monkeys, crocodiles and hippopotamuses Mary and Joseph encounter on the Nile.