Picasso Museum Malaga

Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881 and left as a boy, and for a century the city had almost nothing of his; the museum opened in 2003 after his daughter-in-law Christine and grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso donated and loaned around two hundred works, since expanded. The collection covers the full span of his career rather than concentrating on one period, with paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculpture, including family portraits and late works, hung in the sixteenth-century Palacio de Buenavista. Excavation during the conversion uncovered Phoenician, Roman and Moorish remains beneath the building, which are displayed in the basement. His birthplace on Plaza de la Merced is a separate small museum a few minutes away.

What you actually see

• The career span - works from student years to the late period.
• The ceramics and sculpture - pieces beyond the paintings he is known for.
• The Renaissance palace - a sixteenth-century building adapted as galleries.
• The basement archaeology - Phoenician and Roman remains under the site.

When to go

Year-round; the museum is indoors and busiest at midday when cruise groups arrive. Sunday afternoons offer free entry in the final hours and are crowded accordingly.

Honest expectations

The collection is family holdings rather than a survey of major works, so the famous paintings are elsewhere; visitors expecting Guernica-level pieces are disappointed. Photography is restricted. Tickets for the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are often separate.

Nearby

Picasso's birthplace on Plaza de la Merced is minutes away; the cathedral and Alcazaba are close.