Louvre museum in Paris is probably one of the most visited (and crowded) museums in the world. But now, in the times of the pandemic, its art treasures have practically been hidden from the eyes of the world.
In the attempt to make its collection accessible not only to its visitors but to the whole world, the Louvre museum has put its entire collection online. This doesn’t only include the art pieces currently on display, but even those pieces that reside in the vaults.
In its press release, the Museum says that, “[f]or the first time ever, the entire Louvre collection is available online, whether works are on display in the museum, on long-term loan in other French institutions, or in storage.”
According to the about page, that includes “more than 480,000 works of art that are part of the national collections,” as well as the “so-called ‘MNR’ works (Musées Nationaux Récupération, or National Museums Recovery), recovered after WWII,” and “works on long-term loan from other French or foreign institutions such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Petit Palais, the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, the British Museum and the archaeological museum of Heraklion.”
This means that world-famous art like DaVinci’s Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and countless others can be viewed from the privacy of your home, and possibly even more clearly than through the crowd in the museum itself. All of the images can also be downloaded.
