[8] The new museum featured for the inauguration event in its new location a concert conducted by Manuel de Falla in a church decorated with the accomplished canvases designed by the Catalan Josep Maria Sert, whose murals also embellish the walls of the Council Chamber at the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

The cloister, modeled after the layout for Dominican temples implemented in Salamanca's Convent of San Esteban, shows some signature features, the main one being its unusual location right at the beginning of the church nave, due to the proximity of the hill.

In 1813, at the end of the Peninsular War, San Sebastián was besieged, ransacked and razed to the ground by the relieving British and Portuguese troops, and the convent suffered extensive damage.

In 1836, the Spanish premier Juan Álvarez Mendizábal ordered major ecclesiastic confiscations resulting in the expulsion of the Dominican friars and the conversion of the convent into artillery barracks.

[13] The inauguration event was attended by the lehendakari Patxi Lopez, Maria Jose Aranburu, Culture Secretary of the regional council (diputación/aldundia), and Susana Soto, director of the museum.

[14] The ambitious project of refurbishment and enlargement, designed by the architects Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano, features a modern extension of the old site into the lower wedge of the hill Urgull, thus allowing for further space to accommodate new cultural and commercial uses, as well as easing access for both visitors and collections.

[16] The main entrance, besides providing direct access to the old buildings, constitutes a natural link with the new areas for cloakrooms, shop, events room, cafeteria, and all the necessary spaces needed in a museum of this kind.

[24] The rehabilitation of the convent has revealed remains of Mannerist paintings in the church apse, researched by Pedro Echeverria from the Basque public university, UPV-EHU, linked to the most relevant painters of the period.

The items in display on the permanent exhibition range from a funerary stele collection included in the section "Signs of Spirituality", to later items like Muhammad XII of Granada, "Boabdil"s sword, or Ignatius of Loyola's spiritual exercises, to modern objects, such as bicycles, a Seat 600 car, or historic Real Sociedad and Athletic Club Bilbao football jerseys showcased in the "Awakening of Modernity" section.

[27] The close links of the Basques to the ocean, whale hunting, iron extraction, and manufacturing holds also a prominent place in the museum, along with the domains of religion and art.

Not long after the museum's re-opening, in autumn 2011, a temporary exhibition took place on Federico Fellini that put on display more than 400 items, including photographs, drawings, magazines, cartoons, interviews and film sequences, some of them unknown to date, revealing to the public this formidable director's universe.

The exhibition displayed works of renowned artists that participated the group, such as Jorge Oteiza, Jose Luis Zumeta, or Eduardo Chillida,[31] as well as José Antonio Sistiaga, or Nestor Basterretxea, to mention a few.