The Louvre Just Put Its Entire Art Collection Online so You Can View It at Home for Free

Posted on : 03/29/2021
The Louvre Just Put Its Entire Art Collection Online so You Can View It at Home for Free
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Louvre

You can now view all the treasures of the Louvre museum without having to book a trip to Paris.

The Louvre has put its entire art collection online, the iconic museum announced Friday, with more than 480,000 works of art available for anyone to look through at any time for free.

The museum's most famous works of art like "Winged Victory," "Venus de Milo" and, of course, the "Mona Lisa" are available to peruse online, along with thousands of other items like paintings, sculpture, jewelry, furniture, textiles, and historical objects.

"Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known," President-Director of the Musée du Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, said in a press release. "For the first time, anyone can access the entire collection of works from a computer or smartphone for free, whether they are on display in the museum, on loan, even long-term, or in storage. The Louvre's stunning cultural heritage is all now just a click away!"

The new database contains work from the Louvre and Paris's Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, alongside sculptures from the nearby Tuileries and Carrousel gardens. Online viewers can also peruse "MNR" works (Musées Nationaux Récupération or National Museums Recovery) that were recovered following WWII and entrusted to the Louvre until they can be returned to their legitimate owners.

Viewers who aren't quite sure where to start — or simply want to mimic a visit to the Louvre — can use an interactive map and virtually explore the museum room by room. Users can also search for a specific work of art, browse the collection by theme or follow a themed collection made by the museum's curatorial department. The database will be continually updated with new works and new research.

The Louvre closed to visitors at the start of the pandemic and briefly reopened over the summer with new COVID-19 precautions. The museum remains closed to visitors at this time due to Paris's lockdown and is currently undergoing renovation like adding new security systems, cleaning sculptures, and reorganizing entrances.

Cailey Rizzo is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure, currently based in Brooklyn. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or at caileyrizzo.com.

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