Formerly an 18th Century villa, the museum opened in 1985. The villa was donated to the country in 1951. It houses the Cernuschi Ghiringhelli collection of foreign and Italian abstract art as well as a collection donated by Sandro Cherchi and sculptures by important Ligurian sculptors. There is a library that specialises in the history of contemporary art with archives and a video collection. Since opening it has acquired more than 2000 works of art, including works by Fontana, Licini, and Pollock. Set in the middle of a park with sea views of the Portofino promontory.
