In November 2013, the museum closed for extensive renovation work, including the construction of new exhibition space, and re-opened in December 2018.

[4] After the Congo Free State was recognised by the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, King Leopold II wanted to publicise the civilising mission and the economic opportunities available in his private colony to a wider public, both in Belgium and internationally.

After considering other places, the king decided to have a temporary[5] exhibition in his royal estate in Tervuren, just east of Brussels, in today's province of Flemish Brabant.

[2][3] When the 1897 International Exposition was held in Brussels, a colonial section was built in Tervuren, connected to the city centre by the monumental Avenue de Tervueren/Tervurenlaan.

The Brussels–Tervuren tram line 44 was built at the same time as the original museum by Leopold II to bring the visitors from the city centre to the colonial exhibition.

The exhibition displayed ethnographic objects, stuffed animals and Congolese export products (e.g. coffee, cacao and tobacco).

In the park, a temporary "human zoo"—a copy of an African village—was built, in which 60 Congolese people lived for the duration of the exhibition.

The additional space allowed contemporary art from Central Africa to be displayed alongside the original colonial exhibits.

[4][5] The statue of King Leopold II that once stood in the Great Rotunda was replaced with a sculpture by DRC-born artist, Aimé Mpane.

[14] The Centre d'Accueil du Personnel Africain (CAPA) building, erected in 1957 for the African staff, houses several scientific departments.

[17][18] As of 2018, online finding aids exist for archives of Lieutenant-General Alphonse Cabra [fr], musicologist Paul Collaer, geologist Jules Cornet [fr], Commandant Francis Dhanis, Governor-General of the Belgian Congo Félix Fuchs, Lieutenant-General Cyriaque Gillain, General-Major Josué Henry de la Lindi [fr], explorer Charles Lemaire, American explorer Richard Mohun, Colonel Emmanuel Muller, German explorer Paul Reichard, Captain Albert Sillye, British explorer Henry Morton Stanley, soldier and explorer Émile Storms, Vice-Governor General of the Congo Free State Alphonse van Gèle, historian Jan Vansina, territorial administrator Auguste Verbeken, historian Benoît Verhaegen, Commandant Gustave Vervloet, as well as the railway enterprises Compagnie du chemin de fer du bas-Congo au Katanga (BCK) and Groupe Empain [fr].

[20] The scientific departments, which represent the bulk of the museum's academic and research facilities, together with the main collections, are housed in the former Palace of the Colonies, the Stanley Pavilion and in the CAPA building.

[5] No mention was made of the pillage of resources and atrocities in the Congo Free State, nor during Belgium's larger colonial era.

[5] The exhibition was praised by the international press, with French newspaper Le Monde claiming that "the museum has done better than revisit a particularly stormy page in history...[it] has pushed the public to join it in looking into the reality of colonialism.