[2][3] The museum is a public institution that is funded by the Shanghai City Culture and Tourism Bureau.

[5] Converting the building cost $64 million which was paid for by the Shanghai government.

[6][1] The museum is on the site of the Expo 2010 and on the left bank of the Huangpu River.

It opened in 2012 with an exhibition of contemporary art from Centre Pompidou, Paris's best-known contemporary art museum, entitled Electric Fields, Surrealism and Beyond.

[citation needed] The deputy director is Gong Yan, who was formerly the editor in chief of the Chinese-language magazine Art World.