The collections of Vilnius University Museum were collected from the opening of the museum in 1979. At that time, Vince Žilėnas and his colleagues had already collected more than 2,000 valuable exhibits. The Museum's collections are divided into categories.
Graphics
The museum's collection contains around 800 graphic artworks, most from the 19th century. There are over 350 sheets of Jonas Kazimieras Vilčinskis' Album de Wilna (1857), an album of the Vilnius Archaeological Museum, lithographs by the Vilnius printmaker Joseph Ozemblovskis, and a sizeable iconographic collection of Catholic saints.
Rare prints and other books
The Museum's collection of books consists of some 6 500 items, including prints from the 15th to the 20th century.
Rare publications include "Catholic Postil" (1599) by Mikalojaus Daukša, sermons by Konstantinas Sirvydas entitled "Punktai sakymų" (1629, 1644), and his trilingual Polish-Lithuanian-Latin dictionary (1713). The collection also consists of the "Lyric Book" (1737) by Motiejus Kazimieras Sarbievius, "The History of Lithuania" (1650) by Albertas Vijukas-Kojelavičius, "The Great Art of Artillery" (1650) by Kazimieras Simonavičius, the original copies of the Third Statute of Lithuania of 1588 and 1614.
Medals
The Museum has a collection of about 400 medals and stamps. The collection is based on the anniversary and commemorative medals, insignia, gifts, and commemorative awards of Vilnius University. There are also orders of the Republic of Lithuania.
Numismatics
The numismatic collection consists of almost 5000 coins and bullion. Most of them come from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland, and Russia, dating from the 12th to the 20th centuries. Silver bullion of the 12th and 15th centuries is a particularly significant part of the collection: Lithuanian longs (13th century, Vilnius Ribiški Treasure), Greater Novgorod rubles, and Kyiv hryvnias.
Manuscripts
The collection of manuscripts consists of over 200 items, the earliest of which is the text of the 14th-century manuscript Psalterium Marie (Psalter to Mary, the second half of the 14th century) with illuminations. The manuscript collection also contains original documents with the autographs of Lithuanian rulers (beginning with Sigismund the Old, 1467-1548), several manuscript books from the 17th and 18th centuries, including the original manuscript of the "Curiosities of Prussia" (1698) by Matthäus Prätorius, which contains the author's drawings.
Sculpture
The museum has about 100 sculptures. Most of them are the works of students of the Sculpture Department of the Faculty of Art of Vilnius Stephen Batory University from the first half of the 20th century. The collection also includes 22 wooden sculptures of saints, angels, and allegorical figures from the 17th and 18th centuries, which stood at St. John's Church.
Paintings
The collection of paintings in the museum consists of about 50 works: portraits of professors, rectors, and views of the architectural ensemble of the University. A significant part of them are portraits painted by Vytautas Ciplijauskas. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Vilnius University, he created a whole series of canvases depicting the University's eminent personalities: Motiejus Kazimieras Sarbievius (1595-1640), a poet and professor at Vilnius Academy, King Stephen Batory (1533-1586), the founder of Vilnius University, and Motiejus Valančius (1801-1875), a writer and bishop, portraits of Protestant theologian and folklorist Liudvikas Gediminas Rėza (1777-1840), Lithuanian theologian Kajetonas Rokas Nezabitauskis-Zabičis (1779-1837), and the patriarch of the revival Jonas Basanavičius (1851-1927).
Various museum collections
The museum holds about 75 pieces of 18th- 20th-century musealias. Particularly significant are authentic ceremonial objects of three Lithuanian Masonic lodges and the equipment of the Vilnius University Observatory. The Masonic collection consists of goblets, candlesticks, plates, corners, and a spatula. In addition to the typical Masonic symbols, the objects also feature the signs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: the Vytis, the Pillars of Gediminas, and the Vytautas' Cap (crown).
The Observatory's old collection of instruments includes: a passage instrument with a quadrant made by Jesse Ramsden in London in the mid-18th century; a mirror telescope from the 18th century; a photometer made in Germany by Friedrich Magnus Schwerd in 1868; a planetarium made by the German maker Friedrich M. E. Schotte in the 19th century; and a 19th-century celestial globe with a colored star chart. Mentioned objects are displayed in the White Hall of the University Library with two pairs of globes from the 17th and 18th centuries.
