The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya modern art collection owes its origins to the 1888 Universal Exhibition, when Barcelona City Council installed what was then a modest collection of contemporary (for the time) modern art in the Palau de Belles Arts. This original core of the collection was considerably expanded by acquisitions made by the Council at art exhibitions. As it stands at present, the modern art collection contains a selection of the finest Catalan art from the early 19th century until the 1940s.