The museum was designed by the Peruvian architect Frederick Cooper Llosa,[2] and built on land donated by the Municipality of Barranco.

[4] The museum was preceded by the Institute of Contemporary Art (Spanish: Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo, IAC), which was itself inaugurated in 1955 in the former premises of the Galería de Lima in the jirón Ocoña.

[5] Its inauguration was attended by figures such as José Sabogal, Fernando de Szyszlo and others.

[5] The museum was formally inaugurated in late January 2013[7][8] in an area once occupied by the Barranco Zoo and lake, which closed in 1970.

[9] It is located on top of the former artificial lake that existed there, which had once been the site of a highly-publicised scandal [es] involving a police raid that took place on a restaurant named after the lake.