The MIM collection was started in 1877. The current building was opened in 2000 and has over 1,500 instruments on display. The collection includes mechanical instruments, 20th century instruments, a group of bells, Belgian and European folk instruments, and non-European instruments, as well as a historical tour from antiquity to the 20th century, and a presentation showing the development of keyboard instruments and stringed instruments. There is also a library.
Visitors to the museum are given infraredheadphones, providing the music for many of the instruments on view when standing close to the exhibit. Labels are in French and Dutch but not English.