Housed in the Prince's Palace (1774) that the Marble Bridge links to Christiansborg, the Museum was extended in the 1980s by vast halls that regularly hold temporary exhibitions. The permanent collection presents the history of Denmark through its successive objects and cultures.
The heart of the collections is made up by Danish prehisotry with many gold and bronze objects such as the famous Sun Chariot of Trundholm or that of Dejberg, horned hats, ambers, runestones, The Gundestrup jug, brooches and bracelets, etc. The section on medieval history and the Renaissance has many examples of religious art: Lisbjerg retable (12C), golden altar (12C), sculpture by Hans Brüggemann (Saint George and the Dragon, 1520), Christian III Bible (c1560), rock crystal cross, ancient clocks and so on. The modern and contemporary periods are made up largely of furniture. As well as Danish history, the museum contains collections of antiquities from the Middle East, Egypt, Greece and Rome and an ethnographical department that covers Eskimo and Greenland civilisations.