The Liebieghaus was built in 1896 based on designs by Leonhard Romeis, in a palatial, historicist style, as a retirement home for the Bohemian textile manufacturer Baron Heinrich von Liebieg [Wikidata] (1839–1904).

[7][8] In 1909, Paul Kanold [de] built a gallery wing extension to the villa, that was completed in 1990 by Scheffler and Warschauer.

[11] This included adding a publicly accessible "Open Depot" in the gallery wing basement, making it possible for the first time to view certain parts of the collection that are not in the permanent exhibition.

[15] The museum includes ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman sculpture,[a] as well as Medieval, Baroque, Renaissance and Classicist pieces, and works from the Far East.

[17] The building stands on the Schaumainkai, in a garden in which a number of sculptures are also on display, including a replica of Dannecker's Ariadne on the Panther.