The collection contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Paulus Potter, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Hans Holbein the Younger, and others.

The building is now the property of the government of the Netherlands and is listed in the top 100 Dutch heritage sites.

In 1631, John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, a cousin of Stadtholder Frederick Henry, bought a plot bordering the Binnenhof and the adjacent Hofvijver pond in The Hague,[6] at that time the political centre of the Dutch Republic.

Between 1636 and 1641, the Mauritshuis was built on this piece of land, during John Maurice's governorship of Dutch Brazil.

[7] The two-storey building is strictly symmetrical; originally the interior contained four apartments and a great hall.

[14] During the renovation, about 100 of the museum's paintings were displayed in The Hague's Kunstmuseum in the Highlights Mauritshuis exhibition.

[15] About 50 other paintings, including the Girl With the Pearl Earring, went on loan to exhibitions in the United States and Japan.

Prince Maurice had the bust moved to the burial chamber (Fürstengruft) in Siegen which he had built for himself in 1670.

[17] The bust was removed from the Mauritshuis in 2017 amidst controversy over Holland's colonial history and Prince John Maurice's role in the slave trade.

[18] The Mauritshuis museum has denied that the removal had anything to do with the controversy and has stated that the decision was taken on the grounds that the object was solely a copy made of plastic and the museum was unable to offer the necessary historical context for it in the foyer of the Mauritshuis where it was exhibited.

The statements on the page highlight the key role the Prince played in the slave trade in Brazil and how his immense wealth was likely sourced (in certain cases even in breach of then existing rules) from his involvement in the slave trade.