The first museum in Messina was established in 1806 at the initiative of Carmelo La Farina, a member of the Royal Peloritana Academy and father of the better-known historian Giuseppe. In 1852, Carmelo La Farina died when the Museum was already equipped with two large picture galleries, a room with a library and various antiquities, two rooms of sculptures and tombstones, and a rich Cabinet of Natural History. In 1880, it was decided to move it to the vast monastery attached to the church of San Gregorio, and for this purpose, work was started on the renovation. The earthquake of December 28, 1908, partially destroyed the church, and the exhibits and all that remained of Messina's rich artistic and monumental heritage were transported and stored in the premises of the former Mellinghoff spinning mill and in the area of what remained of the Basilian Convent of the Holy Savior of the Greeks in the current Viale della Libertà. On November 26, 1914, by Royal Decree, the former spinning mill became the National Museum, which was nationalized in 1916. In 1954, it was reorganized by the then director Maria Accascina and in 1974, a project for the construction of the new Museum was drawn up by the architects Carlo Scarpa, from Venice, and Roberto Calandra, from Messina, which was not followed up. In 1976 it was declared a Regional Museum and in 1982 the Sicilian Regional Assembly provided funding for the design and construction of the new Museum Complex on the project of the architects Basile, Manganaro, and De Fiore. In 1991, the installation was started, which is the current one, by the architect Antonio Virgilio who worked on it until 2006. On December 9, 2016, the Regional Museum of Messina in Viale della Libertà was officially inaugurated.
