Also known as the Old Prefecture Palace, the building was erected between 1752 and 1754, when it became the residence of the governor of the Banat region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1779 it became the County House. From 1861 to 1918 it was once again the seat of Timiș County, and after the First World War it housed the Prefecture of Timiș-Torontal County.
The Art Museum was inaugurated in the building in 2006, after a long restoration process started in 1979 by the architects Șerban and Doina Sturdza.
From an architectural point of view, the palace is one of the most representative monuments in the Austrian Baroque style, and it features some Rococo details. The exterior decorative elements and the construction resemble the Kinsky Palace in Vienna.