The museum is hosted in an imposing historical building built around the mid-13th century for the Captain of the People and subsequently used as the seat of the Podestà and the Consiglio di Giustizia. With the unification of Italy in 1865, the palace acquired some of the most important masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture such as Donatello’s David, Verrocchio’s Woman with Flowers and Michelangelo’s Bacchus. Over the years the museum’s collection has grown to include small bronzes, majolica ware, waxworks, enamels, medals, ivory, amber, tapestries, furniture, seals and textiles, largely from the Medici collections but also from private donors and patrons.