The museum is housed in one of the most sumptuous noble palaces in the city. The state purchased the property in 1965 from the Mansi family heirs. The palace was restored in order to restore its original function as a place of representation enriched with frescoes, stuccoes, furniture and tapestries.

The large apartment on the first floor is the palace’s most precious center. The Salone della Musica boasts a stage for an orchestra and is decorated with frescoes by Gian Gioseffo del Sole (1688) framed by decorations by Marcantonio Chiarini. The original tapestries are housed in the chapel. The Sala degli Specchi boasts a neoclassical style thanks to its renovations in the first part of the 19th century. Some of the salons are decorated with Flemish tapestries and precious window treatments. 

The alcove is decorated with embroidered tapestries and a canopy bed set off by silver and gold decorations. 
The first floor houses the 17th and 18th century apartments and the National Picture Gallery of Lucca. 
The ground floor is set aside for temporary exhibits in addition to housing Niemark handiwork and looms and a historic textile workshop. Works from the 19th and 20th century are housed on the second floor. 

The Painting Gallery boasts a number of works from the Medici and Grand Duchy periods. The last Medici Grand Duke in Lucca, Carlo Lodovico di Borbone, sold his public collections on the antique market. Grand Duke Leopoldo II, after the annexation of Lucca, bequeathed a collection of 83 paintings from the 16th to 18th centuries from the Florentine collection.