The Museum started to develop as a public institution with a resurgence of cultural interest following the end of the ban on the Lithuanian language that was imposed by the Russian Empire.

The Museum houses over 8,000 drawings by Italian, German, French, Flemish, Dutch, Polish, English, and Japanese artists from the 15th to 20th centuries.

Section of applied arts features works and objects made from amber, ceramics, metal, porcelain, glass, textile, and leather as well as furniture, numismatics, and clocks.

The Museum has accumulated and displays the wealth of the national folk art, consisting of clothes, fabrics, crosses, chapels, paintings, prints, and wooden sculptures.

Its mission is to organise and coordinate the digitisation of Museums’ valuables, to present Lithuania's national holdings on international portals and thus to enrich European digital collections.