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.[6] It later moved to the Casa Mujica in the Calle Belén in 1966. Between 1969 and 1972, it occupied the premises of the Museum of Italian Art, and in 1981, plans began for a contemporary art museum.[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.
