This museum is also known as MNAC (Museu Nacional d´ Art de Catalunya). The main office is located in the National Palace of Barcelona, a building that is located in the Montjuïc Mountain. It was inaugurated in 1929, on the occasion of the International Exhibition held in this city. It makes a global view of the Catalonia art along history, from the Romanesque to the Contemporary style, including all the artistic disciplines (sculpture, painting, drawings, cartoons, photography and numismatics collection).

The Romanesque and Gothic collections are marked by the Catalonian origin of most of their works. The Renaissance and Baroque collections drive to a more international environment through great painters such as El Greco, Zurbarán, Velázquez, Rubens, etc. The collections from the XIX Century and the first decades of the XX Century mainly consist of examples of Catalonian artists related to the Modernism, the Noucentisme and the Vanguards.

Moreover, other three institutions take part in the group of the museum: the Biblioteca Museo Víctor Balaguer de Vilanova i la Geltrú; the Museo Comarcal de la Garrotxa in Olot; and the Museo Cau Ferrat in Sitges.