Four pieces of artwork in the Japanese release of the game were replaced in the international versions:

• The Fine Painting ("Jeanne Hébuterne with Yellow Sweater" by Amedeo Modigliani) is replaced with the Basic Painting ("The Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough).
• The Healing Painting ("Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son" by Claude Monet, a.k.a. "The Stroll") is replaced with the Classic Painting ("Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze).
• The Lovely Painting ("Portrait of Irène Cahen d'Anvers" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir) is replaced with the Quaint Painting ("The Milkmaid" by Johannes Vermeer).
• The Pleasant Feeling Painting ("Olympia" by Édouard Manet) is replaced with the Scary Painting ("Ōtani Oniji III in the Role of the Servant Edobei" by Tōshūsai Sharaku).

Of these four, the only painting whose reason for replacement can be concretely inferred is the Pleasant Feeling Painting. Its real-world equivalent depicts a prostitute lying nude in bed, which Nintendo of America likely deemed too mature for a child audience.

The Fine Painting that was replaced in the Japanese release is a different item from the one named the Fine Painting in the English release of Animal Crossing, which is based on Paul Gauguin's "Arearea" and is included in all versions of the game.

With the exception of the Classic Painting, the replacement artwork would become standard for later entries in the series; the only replaced painting to return in a subsequent game is the Lovely Painting, present in all versions of Animal Crossing: Wild World.