The Art Museum of Brașov is a non-profit public institution of culture, in the service of society, open for the public, which collects, documents, preserves, restores and researches the museum’s heritage, exhibits and communicates for the purpose of knowledge, education, recreation and harness the heritage of local, regional and national artistic patrimony for the benefit of the general public (Regulation of Organization and Functioning of the Art Museum of Braşov, Art. 5). It functions as a public cultural institution, with its own legal personality, subordinated to the Braşov County Council. According to the Law regarding Museums and Collections, it is classified as a museum of county importance.

The Art Museum of  Brașov was established in 1949 as a section of the Regional Museum. On February 19, 1950, the first fine art exhibition opened on the floor of the Council House, and since March 1st, 1970, the museum has been operating in its current location. The building that houses the Art Museum of Brașov was erected in 1902 in neo-baroque style according to Moritz Wagner plans, a saxon local architect, for the Brașov Craftsmen Association (Kronstadt Gewerbevereinhaus). The Art Museum of Brașov was established as an independent institution on June 1st, 1990, based on Decision no. 227 of June 11, 1990, by detaching the Art Section from the County Museum of Braşov.

The museum’s patrimony includes over 4500 works of art (oil paintings, graphics, sculptures, decorative art, icons, tapestries, oriental carpets, etc.). The collection of painting, graphics and sculpture is representative for modern and contemporary Romanian art and also for Transylvanian art from the 16th-20th centuries.

Recently, the Art Museum of  Brașov has organized large exhibitions presenting the museum's heritage and promoting Brașov's artistic heritage: The Graphics Collection, Masters of Romanian Painting - A Unique Heritage from the Art Museum of Brașov’sCollection, Art Under Communism, The Official Art of the Communist Regime (1945-1989), German Art from Transylvania in The Art Museum of Braşov’s Collection, Interwar Art from Brașov, Postwar Art from Brașov 1945-1989, A Century of Art from Brașov. 1815-1918, Art and History in The Art Museum of Braşov’s Collection.

Over time, the museum has offered generous exhibition space to contemporary artists, established or beginners. There were also prestigious exhibitions dedicated to universal modern art and the great photographers of the twentieth century (Salvador Dali, Juan Miró, Pop Art, Brassaï, Robert Capa, Willy Römer, Arno Fischer, etc.).

The temporary exhibitions which were organized in recent years have highlighted significant moments and personalities in the evolution of Romanian and Transylvanian art: Artistic Avant-Garde, Mişu Popp, Petre Abrudan, Hans Eder, Forgotten Local Artists, Constantin Brâncuşi, Hans Mattis-Teutsch, Arthur Coulin, Elena Popea, Braşov and Ţara Bârsei in Romanian Art, Karl Hübner, Poiana Mărului Painting School, Portraits of the Saxon Patriciate from Braşov, Friedrich Miess, Valeriu Maximilian.