Carmen Thyssen Museum

However, Carmen Thyssen has been an art collector in her own right since the 1980s, and her personal collection is shown separately. In 1999, she agreed to display many items from her collection in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum for a period of twelve years. Meanwhile, a home for her collection was sought in Málaga. This museum, a conversion of a sixteenth-century building, opened to the public on 24 March 2011.

The purpose-built museum was developed by RG Arquitectos Asociados around the 16th century Baroque Palacio de Villalón, which was partly reconstructed on this occasion. The exhibition spaces, three rooms for the permanent collection and two for temporary exhibitions, were newly built next to the palace, which houses the Old Masters collection. Overall, the museum covers 7,147 square metres, of which 5,185 can be used to display art. Excavations, which took place since 2005, have uncovered significant Roman-era remains, revealing the site's continuous occupation from the 1st to the 5th century AD. Located northwest of the Roman city of Malaca, the area housed a suburban villa with domestic, industrial (a fish-salting factory), and commercial spaces. Interesting discoveries include a monumental fountain, likely a nymphaeum, decorated with wall paintings of fish, along with geometric mosaics, ceramics, coins, and remnants of a bronze sculpture. After periods of abandonment, the site saw a brief revival in the 5th century for fish production before becoming a necropolis during the Byzantine era.