Founded in 1948. The donation of Roman coins, furniture, weapons and paintings by his donated Antun Bauer. Museum has started working in the building in the old stagecoach mail Baroque center, in 1966. moved to Castle Eltz. To 1991. The museum is contained collection contains over 50 000 exhibits they did four separate divisions: Museum, collection Bauer Memorial Museum Lavoslav Ruzicka Memorial and Museum II. Congress of the CPY.
During the war Eltz castle suffered severe damage, and collections that are kept there also were killed: the part is completely destroyed, the part is irrevocably gone, and part is transported to Serbia. After many years of effort and diplomatic activities of the Ministry of Culture that part of the collection was returned to Vukovar 13th December 2001. At the end of the 1992nd The collection was established under the name Museum of Vukovar in exile and so created a collection of donations, Croatian, and then the European, artists for the city of Vukovar. To date, the collection gathered over 1400 works of contemporary Croatian and European art. This collection is the beginning of a cultural revival in Vukovar, and will be permanently exhibited in the restored Eltz Castle along with other museum collections.

Vukovar Municipal Museum now operates in a complex Eltz Castle, which, when it is fully restored, will be a unique mu-gallery, scientific and multimedia center, which will be kept and present cultural heritage as an element of national identity and the continuity of life in this area.