The medieval collection unites European sculptures of some seven hundred years, of which the earliest date from the ninth century.

Its main focus, however, is on Late Gothic sculpture of the fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries, primarily from Germany, France and the Netherlands. With the aid of works by leading sculptors of that age, for example Tilman Riemenschneider, Hans Multscher, Niclaus Gerhaert von Leyden and Michel Erhart, a tour of the Liebieghaus medieval department gives visitors a sense of how closely politics, everyday life and the Christian faith were once interwoven ‒ the majority of the objects on view revolve around Christian themes.

The masterworks include the extremely fragile Crucifixion Altar from Rimini with its alabaster figures, and the elaborately carved statue of a Holy Abbot.