For the first time in more than a century, Fine Arts collections and provincial archaeological finds from Malaga Province will be housed under one roof, now that the Museum of Malaga has finally opened to the public.
What has it taken to get to this point?
Four public demonstrations and a huge amount of money! Not to mention quite an unusual museum history. The museum's “career progression” is rather unusual in that it was originally created by decree, then housed in an ordinary apartment, before being moved to a grand palace, from where it was evicted after a twenty-year stint to disappear from view for a long time.
When the museum will be officially inaugurated on 12th December this year, the day will mark the 19th anniversary of the very first demonstration staged by concerned citizens that the former Customs Building should be put to good cultural use. Three more demonstrations followed, but works on restoring the former administrative building didn't start until 2009.
Statistics as impressive as the exhibits themselves
The two collections comprise of more than 17,000 items, of which just 15.8% will be on show in the new museum. The mind boggles how such a large number of items could have been crammed into a residential dwelling, when even the new Museum of Malaga manages to put just 2,700 exhibits on display in one of the city's most imposing buildings. The former Customs Building in Cortina del Muelle, better known as the Palacio de la Aduana, underwent comprehensive and complex restoration work which took more than seven years to complete.
The Palacio will now house one of Spain's most important museums, providing Malaga visitors with yet another amazing tourist attraction. The State invested a staggering 38,685,978 euros in the transformation of the building, which now boasts an overall size of 18,451.96 square metres. The architects were inspired by the design of the original roof that was destroyed in a fire in 1922 and this is reflected in the building's new roof line.
The ground floor of the restored Customs Building now boasts 3,574 square metres of usable floor space. People can stroll around the surrounding landscaped plot where attractive trees, bench seating and information panels invite visitors to spend a little time in contemplation before going into the new exhibition rooms, cafeteria or shop.
Museum of Malaga now employs 168 people to ensure smooth running of the attraction. The old museum was run by just 31 staff. New employees were sourced from a variety of existing regional government departments, including redeployed civil servants and other personnel.
The two collections were first incorporated into one provincial museum in 1973; the collections were effectively mothballed after just two decades on show. It cost the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport 359,445 euros to recover the archaeological exhibits from the Loringiana collection, so they could be put on display at their new home in Palacio de la Aduana.
Of the 17,000 items that the museum now houses, around 15,000 are part of the Archaeological collection; the remainder are Fine Arts exhibits. Junta de Andalucia contributed 680,000 euros to the restoration of more than 450 pieces, work carried out by the Andalucian institute of Historic Heritage between 2010 and 2015.