This museum is located in the old late-Gothic Franciscan monastery, which has been used to house exhibits since the end of the 19th century. The museum used to hold  a sizeable collection of historical works of art. In 1884. The core of the Museum’s collection constitutes the collection of Jacob Kabrun, which includes several thousand pictures, drawings and prints by European masters from the end of the fifteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth centuries.

By 1942 over 50% of all art and art collections in Poland were either destroyed or plundered. After the end of the Second World War, 65% of the main building of the museum was destroyed and much of the museum’s collections were lost, including all the numismatic exhibits as well as works of art from the Far East, the library and some of the museum’s records were lost or destroyed.

The biggest attraction is The Last Judgment by a Flemish painter Hans Memling and painted between 1467 and 1471.  It was commissioned by Angelo Tani, an agent of the Medici at Bruges, but was captured at sea by Paul Beneke, a privateer from Danzig. A lengthy lawsuit against the Hanseatic League demanded its return to Italy. It was placed in the Basilica of the Assumption but in the 20th century it was moved to its present location.