Museum of Málaga returns… after 2-decade absence

Taking 7 years to convert and at a cost of nearly €40 million, what was formerly the Customs Building, the imposing La Aduana edifice is a fitting home for the newly reopened Museum.

Nineteen years after it closed – and also since the first of many public demonstrations to bring it back were held – the largest museum in Andalucía, and one of the finest anywhere in Spain reopened its doors in the capital of the Costa del Sol on Monday, 12 December, just in time for Christmas…

Originally housed in the city’s Palacio de Buenavista, the Fine Arts and Archaeological collections were later evicted to make room for the Picasso Museum inaugurated there in 2003 and rather ignominiously spent the next two decades scattered and shut away in various different buildings before eventually finding their new permanent home in the imposing La Aduana building next to the Roman Theatre.

Taking seven years to convert and at a cost of nearly €40 million, what was formerly Málaga’s Customs Building – as well as having been used as government offices and a police station – is now a fitting home for the newly reopened Museum which comprises a total of 17,500 works of art, with 2,700 of the pieces on display in the permanent collection.

Covering a vast 18,451m2, the Museo de Málaga is three times the size of the Picasso Musum, the CAC Málaga and the Carmen Thyssen Museum and has already been dubbed ‘Andalucía’s Prado’.

Highlights of the Fine Arts section include its exquisite collection of 19^th century paintings, said to be among the best in Spain, while the Archaeological artefacts date from the prehistoric period to the Middle Ages and feature major Phoenician, Roman and Moorish items.

The Museo de Málaga is open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 9am to 8.30pm; Sundays and public holidays from 9am to 3.30pm. Admission is free of charge for EU citizens and costs just €1.50 for non EU citizens.