The museum, which had been discussed for more than fifty years,[1] opened in a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) space in October 1993 with a large exhibit on the Etruscans.

[5] Lacking a museum, the university allowed professors into storage rooms to select art to decorate their offices, even though some of the paintings were very valuable.

[3] When Burnside retired in 1984, the new dean of the art department, James Mason, ordered an audit and found that more than 900 artworks were stolen, missing, or sold without authorization, at a loss of almost 4 million dollars.

[3][6] After breaking ground two years prior,[7] the museum opened in October 1993 as a location to house BYU's extensive collection of more than 17,000 pieces of art which, due to a lack of space, had never been able to be displayed permanently.

The permanent collection contains works of art from many renowned artists including Carl Bloch, Maynard Dixon, Rembrandt, Norman Rockwell, John Singer Sargent, and Minerva Teichert.