[1] Initially the museum focused on acquiring artworks from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, but now its collection includes works up to the present day.

[4] On display in the museum is Francisco Amighetti's 1948 mural Agriculture, commemorating the Costa Rican Civil War.

[1][5] The collection also includes works by abstact painter Lola Fernández and sculptor Juan Rafael Chacón [es], and a mural by Louis Féron.

[1] The "first major retrospective" of Max Jiménez's work was held at the Museo de Arte Costarricense in 1999.

[6] In 2024 the MAC held the first exhibition of Carlos Cruz-Diez's artwork in Central America,[7] as well as an exhibition of artworks depicting the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica.