The outstanding feature of the collection is its serial arrangement: Manfred Bumiller’s aim was to crystallize the typological development of artistic forms. Instead of acquiring unique masterpieces, he focused on collecting everyday objects that were produced in large numbers. Nevertheless, some of the objects are of outstanding artistic and technical quality.

M. Bumiller soon also acquired objects in other materials in order to work out the typological development of form. Ceramics and glass in particular show revealing parallels to metal art. The repertoire is completed by a collection of coins from various dynasties, manuscripts and objects made of stone, wood and bone. By far the largest proportion is made up of bronzes, around 4000 objects, followed by around 500 ceramics, 500 glass objects, 300 coins and 200 stone objects.

The acquisition of further objects was discontinued in 2015. Since then, the focus has been on the didactic preparation of the exhibition as well as the documentation and publication of the collection. Studies on the Bumiller Collection is a new publication series founded in 2019 that documents the ongoing processing of selected objects.

The collection is almost completely on display. The majority is located on two floors in the permanent exhibition, while the rest is kept in display cases in the depot. The depot is accessible as part of guided tours or for research purposes.