The Museum is located on the ground floor of the prestigious Palazzo dei Bargellini, designed by the architect Bartolomeo Provaglia, whose construction began in 1638 and saw the intervention of other bolognese sculpturers such as Gabriele Brunelli and Francesco Agnesini who cooperated for the façade (1658). The sumptuos staircase dates back to the first half of the following century (1730), maybe designed by Carlo Francesco Dotti. After the extinction of the Bargellini Family in 1839, the palace was acquired by some members of Davia Family, another illustrious bolognese family who lived here until 1874. The Museum opened in 1924 and it is still organized as it was arranged in the beginning by Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri, Soprintendente delle Belle Arti (Supervisor of fine arts). It is formed by two different collections, Quadreria Davia Bargellini (The Collection Davia Bargellini) and Raccolte d'Arte Industriale (Collections of Industrial Art).

Collection Davia Bargellini

The collection Davia Bargellini is one of the few examples of the bolognese historic collecting. Along with the gallery of portraits of some of the most illustrious members of the Bargellini family (by Bartolomeo Passerotti, Prospero and Lavinia Fontana), there are also other big paintings carried out by Marcantonio Franceschini at the beginnig of the 18th century (Venere, Adone, Bacco), still kept in their sumptuous frames. There are also works of art by Bartolomeo Cesi and Alessandro Tiarini, along with other works dating back to the 15th and 16th century such as La Madonna dei Denti by Vitale da Bologna, Pietà con Giovanni  da Elthinl by Simone dei Crocifissi (1368) and Madonna col Bambino by Cristoforo da Bologna.

Collection of Industrial Art

The collections of applied arts (or industrial art as it was known by Malaguzzi Valeri) derive from different places and periods. They are mainly works of art acquired by antique trade markets or private citizens around 1920 (the collection of wrough-iron objects), and others given to the Museum by the bolognese Opere Pie (the chasubles of the 17th and 18th century) or by the Municipality of Bologna (the late 18th century coach). There are also samples of the bolognese sculpture of the 16th and 19th century (by Onofri, Mazza, Piò, Tandolini), the Reanaissance pottery and objects of the bolognese Baroque period. The marionette theatre and a model of a furnished apartment blocks of the 18th century may also be seen.