Paris is one of the key cities in the world with hundreds of thousands of artworks available to be seen in the city’s museums. The 14 public museums in the city are incorporated within Paris Musées (Museums) institution including artworks of key artists like Francisco Goya, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and countless others.
Now, as Vice reports, Paris Musées (Museums) has uploaded 321,178 works of art—including paintings, photographs, and coins—online. More than 150,000 of those images are in the public domain and users can download them in 300 DPI high definition. The other artworks can be viewed, but aren’t available in high definition.
“Making this data available guarantees that our digital files can be freely accessed and reused by anyone or everyone, without any technical, legal or financial restraints, whether for commercial use or not,” Paris Musées (Museums) said in a press release.
Users can browse the museum’s catalog or view specially curated virtual exhibitions. “We are ensuring they can easily, enduringly, freely and instantly use High Definition images to support their research, their teaching, and their publications, thereby improving their physical and digital cultural mediation tools,” Paris Musées (Museums) said in its press release.
Thanks to Paris Musées (Museums),scholars and art lovers alike can use the online portal as a tool to revisit the works that shaped — or shook — art history.
