The heart of the Museum was the building which housed the town's theatre when Dali was a child, and where one of the first public exhibitions of young Dal?s art was shown. The old theater was bombed in the Spanish Civil War and remained in a state of ruin for decades until Dal?and the mayor of Figueres decided to rebuild it as a museum dedicated to the town's most famous son in 1960. The museum also occupies buildings and couryards adjacent to the old theater building.
The museum opened in 1974, with continuing expansions through the mid 1980s. It houses the single largest and most diverse collection of works by Mae West when viewed from a certain spot, and other curiosities from Dal?s immagination.
The museum also houses a small selection of works by other artists collected by Dal? ranging from El Greco to Marcel Duchamp, and a gallery devoted to the work of Dal?s friend and fellow Catalan artist Antoni Pixot.
Dal?is buried in a crypt in the Theater-Museum's basement.