The collections collected in it mainly include sculpture and painting, with particular emphasis on the whole Silesia. In the 19th century and until 1945, the museum's predecessors were created in 1815, the Royal Museum of Art and Antiquities, the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts established in 1880, and the Silesian Museum of Decorative and Antiquities created in 1899. However, these museums were completely or largely destroyed during World War II.

The building, which currently houses the National Museum in Wrocław, was built in the style of the Dutch renaissance. The building was built in 1883-1886 according to the design of Karl Friedrich Endell. Until 1939, in the building of the current museum, there was the seat of the Silesian Regency. For visitors, the museum was opened in July 1948. At the beginning it existed under the name of the State Museum, in 1950 it changed its name to the Silesian Museum, and from 1970 it was raised to the status of a national museum.

The exhibition of the National Museum in Wrocław is divided into sections:

Silesian stone sculpture from the 12th-16th centuries - found here, among others gravestones of Silesian princes, sculptures, reliefs and altar statues.

Silesian Art from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century - the exhibition contains high-class objects of Gothic sacred art, monuments of handicraft.

Polish Art from the 17th-19th centuries - the core of the collection comes from the museum collections of Lviv and Kiev, which was handed over to Wrocław in 1946. In the Section of Polish Art from the 17th-19th centuries, painting dominates.

European Art from the XV-XX centuries - the exhibition presents European paintings from the Renaissance to the first half of the 20th century, as well as examples of sculpture.

Oriental Art - the department presents the exhibition of Middle and Far East art.

Polish contemporary art - the exhibition presents works from the beginning of the 20th century, through the interwar period to the most-recognized post-war artists. This section is complemented by a separate room by Magdalena Abakanowicz and an exhibition of glass and ceramics.

The National Museum in Wrocław, apart from the main building, also has two branches: the Ethnographic Museum in Wrocław and the Panorama of Racławice.