[2] In 2009, the Fundación Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso that owned the collection merged with the Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga that operated the museum,[3][4] which is based in the home on Málaga's Plaza de la Merced that was Picasso's birthplace, and is now the Museo Casa Natal ("Birthplace Museum").

The artist was in touch with Juan Temboury Álvarez, the Provincial Delegate for Fine Arts in Málaga,[2] and this very building was discussed as a possible site[8] but nothing came of it.

Her son, Picasso's grandson, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso donated another 5 paintings, 2 drawings, 10 engravings, and 5 ceramics, for an overall total of 155 works.

[16] The conversion of the building for the Museo Picasso was a major undertaking, led by the American architect Richard Gluckman,[17] along with Isabel Cámara and Rafael Martín Delgado.

[20] The excavations for the work led to remarkable discoveries: remnants of a city wall and towers dating back to the Phoenicians, of a Roman factory to produce the fish-based sauce garum, and also of the earlier Nasrid palace on the same site.

This problem was solved in part through making air conditioning vents out of white marble slabs with pseudo-Mudéjar design elements, integrated into the walls.

[20] In This approach of mixing the modern and the historical was put particularly to the test in March 2002, when a fire broke out, damaging three of the halls destined to be exhibition spaces.

The damaged 16th century coffered ceilings were recreated by the Madrid-based Taujel company, combining traditional craftsmanship with computer design techniques.

[24] Still, historian María Salinas Ruiz of Málaga was not at all pleased by the undertaking, criticizing the sacrifice of two houses with listed historical status and the major modifications to the palace itself, destroying "its marvelous spaces, its flooring, its winding passages and its fountains" that took such advantage of the light at different times of day.

That museum had an excellent collection of the city's main artists, but for budgetary reasons was seldom open to the public.