The Museum of Fine Arts, Granada, has its roots in the confiscation promoted by minister Álvarez Mendizábal in the 19th century. Works of art were taken from abolished convents and monasteries and used to set up the Provincial Museum in the former Dominican convent of Santa Cruz la Real. It was solemnly inaugurated on 11 August 1839, as testified by the local press at the time.

The Museum's origins have had a profound influence on it as, even today, an essential part of its collections are from the confiscations. They make up the bulk of the fixed collection which is predominated by Granada religiously themed paintings executed between the 16th and 18th centuries. Since 1984, the Museum has received a significant boost in this area with the contribution of the Junta de Andalucía's Collection which is based on works from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Granada, was inaugurated at its new home on the first floor of the Palace of Carlos V in the Alhambra on 6 October 1958.