Schedule: from Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Phone: +506 2287-6034
Address: on 7th avenue, between 9th and 11th streets, at the INS building, district: Carmen, canton: San José, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 10101.
On October 30th, 1924, the Congress of the Republic of Costa Rica adopted the Law No. 12 which created a monopoly on insurance in favor of the State, giving it the name of Insurance National Bank, and 24 years later, changed its name to the National Insurance Institute (INS in Spanish). This institution aims to provide protection and service to the people 
of Costa Rica.
In the seventies, the National Insurance Institute faced the situation of relentless stealing and commercialization of archaeological objects, both inside and outside the national territory, so the museum acquired artifacts from collectors by purchase and in a few cases, by donation. By then, the INS had made up its objects collection from pre-Columbian times to approximately 7000 pieces of various materials such as jade, ceramics, stone, gold, shell, wood, resin, bone and others. For these acquisitions and for historical reasons the aesthetic prevailed in contrast to the daily. On October 31st, 1977, the INS opened the Museum under the name “Archaeological Collection of the National Insurance Institute”, and then in 1980 with the agreement of the XI Session of 6556 of the current Directorate, it was renamed to Jade Museum (Museo del Jade).
Following the failure to restructure a lost cause due to the non-scientific excavation methods, the Jade Museum was given the task of promoting research projects, in order to learn the context, if possible, through the association of scientifically excavated objects. These investigations have worked in fields such as: anthropological, archaeological, geologist, artist and ethno-musical.
Jade Museum Costa Rica with over twenty years of operation has enabled thousands of nationals and foreign visitors to visit their exhibition halls, having the opportunity to admire one of the richest institutional collection of America. The variety of its objects, consisting of four collections, archeology, art, ethnography, 
numismatics; reflects one of the INS objectives, to generate a social contribution, through registration, documentation and exhibition of expositions.
For more than quarter of a century, the cultural heritage that the museum guards, has served as an ambassador to Costa Rica, by being part of international exhibitions displayed in different cities in America, Europe and Asia. The high quality of the art collection is reflected for instance in the significant number of works by renowned Costa Rican artists, representing various periods of the national plastic production, which on many occasions have been given on loan for exhibition and research.
The Jade Museum throughout these years has facilitated its showrooms, both to publicize the product of national and international artists as for exhibitions related to a wide range of subjects like history, science, technology and other topics related to human activity. Today it’s the only existing museum of pre-Columbian jade and the largest collection of this type in exhibition, since this archaeological museum shows not only jade objects but valuable pieces carved in stone and ceramics of high artistic quality. The museum is located on the first floor of the National Insurance Institute of Costa Rica.
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