Missing the art galleries? How about a virtual wander around the Louvre?
If you haven’t had a chance to visit Chicago’s recently opened museums yet (or are not feeling entirely comfortable indoors), Paris‘s famous Louvre Museum invites you to escape, unveiling a new online gallery featuring nearly 500,000 works from its collections!
It makes for a fascinating virtual (and free!) stroll, even as the museum patiently awaits its reopening. Plus, it gives us the chance to immerse ourselves in the heart of the Louvre, without needing to brave the lines.
The world’s most popular museum had thus far resisted putting its collections online, but with France heading back into lockdown, it’s a good opportunity for art lovers in France and beyond to explore online. Now, not only does the Louvre have a shiny new website, but it’s also got Louvre Collections, the database which now contains some 482,000 pieces from their storied collection.
📜 Are you missing museums in the pandemic?
The Louvre just digitized an estimated 482,000 works in its vast collection — making it available for anyone to access on a computer or smartphone for free.https://t.co/JrukligYnL
— NPR (@NPR) March 31, 2021
Works from the Louvre Museum and the Eugène Delacroix National Museum are contained here, in a veritable cultural treasure trove. The database is being added to each day and is the product of plenty of research and documentation work carried out by the scientific staff of the two museums. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, jewelry, and furniture are all contained within, so if you were looking to spend a lazy weekend exploring masterpieces from throughout history, this is your chance!
[Featured image from Unsplash / Chris Karidis]