tour the louvre virtual

You Can Now Explore the Louvre’s Entire Collection Online

A new digital database features 480,000 works from the Paris museum’s holdings

Nora McGreevy

Correspondent

When cultural institutions around the world were forced to shutter last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic , even the most popular art museum in the world felt the effects. The Louvre , home to such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa , welcomed just 2.7 million visitors in 2020—a 72 percent drop from 2019, when 9.6 million people flocked to the Paris museum.

But even as physical museums remained closed, art enthusiasts continued to seek inspiration in new ways : In that same pandemic year, 21 million people visited the Louvre’s website, according to a statement .

Thanks to a major website redesign and a new online collection database, browsing the historic museum’s holdings from home is easier than ever, reports Alaa Elassar for CNN . For the first time ever, the Louvre’s entire art collection is available to search online. The updated catalogue boasts more than 480,000 entries, from rare items stowed away in storage to the iconic Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace . (Though the digital database is free to browse, offerings are not open access , meaning users cannot directly download, share or reuse the images.)

“Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known,” says the museum’s president, Jean-Luc Martinez, in the statement. “… [A]nyone 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.”

Martinez adds, “The Louvre’s stunning cultural heritage is all now just a click away.”

Viewers can also click through an interactive map of the museum, virtually walking through the cavernous halls of the Renaissance castle or the sleek steel-and-glass pyramid designed by American architect I.M. Pei in 1989.

Previously, the public only had access to about 30,000 listings of works in the Louvre’s collections, reports Vincent Noce for the Art Newspaper . Per France24 , more than three-quarters of the entries in the Louvre’s online collection contain images and label information. The museum plans to continue to expand and improve the database in the coming months.

The archive also includes the collections of the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix , which is run by the Louvre, and the nearby Tuileries Garden , as well as a number of Nazi-looted artworks that are in the process of being returned to their original owners’ families.

According to the new online catalogue , about 61,000 works stolen by the Nazis were retrieved from Germany and brought back to France after World War II. Of these works, 45,000 have been returned to their rightful owners. A number of others were sold by the French state. The remaining 2,143 unclaimed works were categorized as National Museum Recovery (MNR) and entrusted to French cultural institutions, including the Louvre, for safekeeping.

Despite the Louvre’s involvement in repatriation efforts, lingering concerns remain that Nazi-looted art may have made its way into the Louvre’s permanent collections during the war. Since hiring curator Emmanuelle Polack to lead a wartime provenance research project in January 2020, the Louvre has checked nearly two-thirds of the 13,943 works it acquired between 1933 and 1945, Martinez tells the Art Newspaper .

In the future, the museum plans to debut the findings of this research project on its website. The director notes that he has instructed curators to conduct a similar investigation of the thousands of artworks in the Louvre’s collections that hail from countries formerly under French control, such as Algeria, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon.

The goal of this long-term project, he says, will be to identify which items in the Louvre’s encyclopedic collections were obtained through looting or colonial violence.

“Our collections are mostly archaeological and come from digs shared with the countries of origin,” Martinez tells the Art Newspaper , adding that the museum often obtained new archives through “bilateral” legal agreements.

At the same time, Martinez adds, “[M]useums like the Louvre served imperial ambitions and we have to deal with this history.”

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Nora McGreevy | | READ MORE

Nora McGreevy is a former daily correspondent for Smithsonian . She is also a freelance journalist based in Chicago whose work has appeared in Wired , Washingtonian , the Boston Globe , South Bend Tribune , the New York Times and more.

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Take a Long Virtual Tour of the Louvre in Three High-Definition Videos

in Art | April 16th, 2020 2 Comments

So, you’ve had to put off a trip to Paris, and a long-await­ed vis­it to the Lou­vre , which “will remain closed until fur­ther notice,” has been pushed into the indef­i­nite hori­zon. It could be worse, but the loss of engag­ing up close with cul­tur­al trea­sures is some­thing we should all grieve in lock­down. Art is so impor­tant to human well-being that UK Sec­re­tary of Health Matt Han­cock argued all doc­tors in the NHS should pre­scribe gallery vis­its and oth­er art activ­i­ties for every­thing from men­tal issues to lung dis­eases.

As you know from plan­ning your trip (ide­al­ly sev­er­al trips) to the famous museum—first opened to the pub­lic in 1793 on the first anniver­sary of Louis XVI’s imprisonment—you can lux­u­ri­ate in art for days on end once there, pro­vid­ed you can evade the mas­sive crowds.

The Lou­vre is immense, with 60,500 square meters of floor space and around 35,000 paint­ings, sculp­tures, and oth­er arti­facts. But with rough­ly 10 mil­lion vis­i­tors per year, who make it the world’s most vis­it­ed muse­um, it isn’t easy to find space for con­tem­pla­tion.

Video vis­its are no sub­sti­tute, but these days they’re the best we’ve got. If you’re eager to see what you’re missing—or what you could nev­er get to in per­son even with­out a pandemic—take a look at the 4K vir­tu­al tours here from Wan­der­lust Trav­el Videos. Yes, you’ll see the hero­ic mas­ter­works of Jacques-Louis David, Eugene Delacroix, and Théodore Géri­cault. You’ll see the famous glass pyra­mid, the trea­sures of Napoleon’s Apart­ments, and, yes, the Mona Lisa .

But you’ll also see hun­dreds and hun­dreds of works that don’t get the same kind of press, each one named in a time­stamped list on the YouTube pages. The expe­ri­ence is admit­ted­ly like vis­it­ing the muse­um in per­son, rush­ing through each gallery, peer­ing over and around the backs of heads to get a glimpse of the Fra Fil­ip­po Lip­pis, Cimabues, and Man­teg­nas. But you can mute the con­stant back­ground chat­ter and pause and rewind as much as you like.

After tour­ing a good bit of the muse­um, stroll around the Car­rousel Arc de Tri­om­phe, Jardin de l’infante, and the Pont Neuf, above. Judg­ing by the com­ments, these videos are prov­ing a balm to the psy­ches of home­bound art lovers around the world, whether they’ve been to the Lou­vre before, just scrapped their trav­el plans, or know they’ll prob­a­bly nev­er get the chance to vis­it.

The vir­tu­al oppor­tu­ni­ty to tour this mag­nif­i­cent col­lec­tion, or part of it, may refresh our exhaust­ed imag­i­na­tions. It may also soothe the part of us that real­ly miss­es huge crowds of peo­ple all talk­ing at once. Some­thing about the expe­ri­ence, even on the screen, feels so strange­ly com­pelling right now you might find your­self hop­ing if and when you final­ly get to the Lou­vre, it’s sim­ply mobbed.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Mona Lisa Self­ie: A Mon­tage of Social Media Pho­tos Tak­en at the Lou­vre and Put on Insta­gram

Take a Vir­tu­al Tour of 30 World-Class Muse­ums & Safe­ly Vis­it 2 Mil­lion Works of Fine Art

Vis­it The Muse­um of Online Muse­ums (MoOM): A Mega Col­lec­tion of 220 Online Exhi­bi­tions

Josh Jones  is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at  @jdmagness

by Josh Jones | Permalink | Comments (2) |

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Comments (2), 2 comments so far.

This is noth­ing but video from someone’s GoPro cam­era. Some­one that space Spends even less time admir­ing the art than the museum’s typ­i­cal guest !!!!

Sans aucun com­men­taire?!

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Paris' Famed Louvre Museum Digitizes Half a Million Pieces — and 'Anyone Can Access' the Art

The Louvre has been closed since October due to COVID, but visitors can now visit — for free! — from the comfort of their own homes

The pandemic may have closed the doors of Paris' Musée de Louvre, but the famed museum will soon have more visitors than ever thanks to the magic of the internet.

The Louvre announced last week that its storied collection of more than 480,000 items will be made available online for art lovers and history buffs to explore from the comfort of their own homes — for free!

"The Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known," Jean-Luc Martinez, the museum's president and director, said in a statement . "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."

Those who want to pay the Louvre a virtual visit can search items by department or theme, and there's also an interactive map available to explore the building room by room.

RELATED VIDEO: Kate Middleton Becomes First Royal Patron of the Victoria & Albert Museum

Each item includes information such as title, artist and date and place of production, and works are from not only the Louvre itself, but other locations that have lent the museum items on a long-term loan, including the British Museum and the archaeological museum of Heraklion.

Other items include sculptures from the Tuileries Garden and National Museums Recovery works, which were recovered in Germany following World War II.

"The entries in the Collections database, updated daily based on input from management and documentation services, are written by a team of experts from the Louvre," the museum's website — which received 21 million visitors in 2020 — says.

The updated virtual visits have been designed for use on smartphones, and are available in French, English, Spanish and Chinese.

The nearly 500,000 digitized items up for viewing represent about three-quarters of the Louvre's entire archive, according to NPR .

"It helps you see things you might not otherwise. It helps you find surprises," Suse Anderson, a professor of museum studies at George Washington University, told NPR. "And that's where I think you often get the connection to your own life, is when you find something that resonates, that isn't the thing you went looking for."

The Louvre has been closed due to COVID concerns since October, and is currently undergoing long-awaited renovations, CNN reported.

Related Articles

Must Know Tips For The Louvre: How To Prepare For Your Visit

The Louvre is stunning. It’s the quintessential example of the museum idea: that you can go into one place and confront the the finest things ever created.

The Louvre is the largest, busiest, most visited museum in the world. It has 35,000 works of art from the 6th century BC to the 19th century AD.

It’s a sumptuous Renaissance palace itself, with a lavishly decorated interior and beautifully painted ceilings. Plus it holds the world’s most famous painting — the Mona Lisa .

A visit to the Louvre is a visually rewarding experience. But it can be exhausting, an intimidating overcrowded madhouse.

The Louvre is filled with masterpieces at every turn. It can be overwhelming, especially if you’re not an art buff. It’s important not to just show up without a plan, or you might end up feeling frustrated.

It’s much better to do some background research before your visit. This way, you’ll know what to expect and what you want to see, allowing you to enjoy the art without feeling confused, stressed, or like you’re missing out.

Here are my tips for making the most of your Louvre visit.

These essential tips, tricks, and hacks will help you navigate the Louvre more efficiently and enjoyably. You’ll also find out what you can do beforehand to prepare for an amazing visit to this iconic museum.

Essential Tips For Visiting the Louvre

With these Louvre tips, you can plan your visit down to the last detail, if you’re so inclined.

1. Identify and Educate Yourself On the Must See Masterpieces of the Louvre

First, read up on what to see at the Louvre. You can’t see everything in the Louvre on one visit. The Louvre is best experienced by going back repeatedly.

But if you only have one day, figure out your priorities in advance. And perhaps determine which specific pieces of art you want to see in each wing.

If you want to know more about the history of the Louvre, click here . I’ve also written an extensive guide to the underrated masterpieces of the Louvre , with tips and tricks for visiting.

Hint, the world’s most famous painting Mona Lisa is highly overrated. You’ll be lucky if you get near the small painting cordoned off behind glass.

The Mona Lisa only became famous when it was stolen in the early 20th century. In an adjacent room, you can saddle up to two equally good Leonardo masterpieces for a much closer look, the Annunciation and The Virgin and Child With St. Anne .

I also have a guide to what I think is the best painting in the Louvre , Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa , a then-scandalous painting based on a true story.

You can also study sixteen 1:30 minute thematic trails for visiting the Louvre on the museum website.

2. Learn the Louvre Layout

The Louvre is huge, really massive. Even with a map, you may get lost.

The Louvre is U shaped, divided into three wings: Denon, Sully, and Richelieu. Each of the wings has four floors. Click here for an interactive map of the Louvre.

Denon Wing : home to the Louvre’s best known paintings, including the Mona Lisa .

Sully Wing : known for its statuary and antiquities, including the Venus de Milo .

Richelieu Wing : houses the lavish apartments of Napoleon III and some famed Dutch art works, including Vermeer’s The Lacemaker .

You can’t really do all three wings in one day without severe museum fatigue and sensory overload. Ideally, do one wing per day. But if you can’t, and you want to see the most famous masterpieces, they’re in the Denon and Sully wings.

3. Learn Out Loud: Listen to Free Louvre Podcasts

Learn out loud before you go! Here are some of my favorite Louvre-related podcasts, which serve as handy primers for visiting the Louvre.

• Is the Mona Lisa a Fake?
• Shock Art: Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa
• Shock Art: David’s Death of Marat
• Leonardo da Vinci, Genius
• Rick Steve’s Louvre Audio Tour
• Michelangelo

If you’re interested in more podcasts for art lovers, here’s my to read guide to the best art podcasts .

4. Listen to the Smarthistory YouTube Videos About Louvre Masterpieces

And there’s more ways to learn out loud about Louvre art!

Check out these 12 super informative YouTube videos, which make Louvre art come to life. They explain and analyze specific master art works at the Louvre:

• Leonardo’s Mona Lisa
• Winged Victory of Samothrace
• Michelangelo’s Slaves
• Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People
• Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalos
• Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque
• Rembrandt’s Bathsheba at her Bath
• Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin
• The Seated Scribe
• David’s Oath of the Horatii
• David’s Death of Marat
• Raphael’s Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist

5. Take a Virtual Tour of the Louvre

One of the best ways to prepare for a Louvre visit is to take a virtual tour of the Louvre , wing by wing.

In this curated tour, you can see all the must see masterpieces via 360 video tours, YouTube videos, or online tours from the Louvre website. For a lengthy overall YouTube tour of the Louvre, click here .

In addition, you can take a virtual 360 tour of the Louvre’s Grand Gallery, which houses much of the Louvre’s Italian art. If you’re a Mona Lisa fan, the Louvre is offering the museum’s first virtual reality experience , which brings to life the story of the enigmatic portrait.

You can also take a virtual tour the Louvre’s Roman Antiquities here , the famed Egyptian Antiquities here , and walk around the Medieval Louvre here .

6. Book Tickets To the Louvre In Advance

Adults tickets are €17 and children under 18 are free.

Admission is free for all visitors on the first Saturday of each month from 6:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m, and, for those under 26, on Friday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.

But the free hours are extremely crowded.

It’s essential to buy tickets for the Louvre online at least a month in advance. This saves you waiting in both a ticket line and a security line.

If tickets on the Louvre website are sold out, you may be able to get a ticket on Get Your Guide , Viator , or Tiqets . These reseller tickets sell out quickly too, so book as far in advance as possible.

You also have skip the line entry to the Louvre with the Paris Museum Pass .

As of 2023, Louvre tickets will be even harder to come by. To provide a better viewing experience, the Louvre has decided to limit daily attendance by about a third, to 30,000 people.

Even if you have a ticket, you’ll still need to go through security. This may take about 30 minutes.

If tickets are sold out, another option is to book a guided tour . They vary in length from 1-4 hours.

7. Know the Right Entrance To Use

Another important Louvre tip is to make sure to go to the right entrance. Don’t go in the I.M. Pei Pyramid entrance, beautiful as it is.

Use the Carrousel du Louvre entrance.

This is the underground entrance to the Louvre, which you can access if you take Metro Line 1 to the Palais Royale-Musee du Louvre stop. You can also access it from 99 Rue de Rivoli (go down two sets of escalators to the inverted pyramid).

At the Carrousel du Louvre entrance, the security line is often nonexistent. There are numerous ticket machines in the main lobby, make buying your ticket a breeze if you haven’t already purchased one online.

If you don’t have a ticket, you’ll have to use the pyaamid entrance. There are four lines:

Orange Line:  Visitors without tickets Green Line:  Visitors with a ticket or the Paris Museum Pass Blue Line:  Priority Access for disabled visitors and staff members Yellow Line:  Visitors with Membership Cards

Practical Information for Visiting the Louvre

Address: Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France

Hours: Closed Tuesdays. Open other days 9:00 to 6:00 pm. On Wednesday and Friday, the Louvre is open until 9:45 pm. However, from July until September 2020, the museum will only be open from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Entry fees :

Adults € 17

Admission is free for all visitors on the first Saturday of each month from 6:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m, and, for those under 26, on Friday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. But the free hours are extremely crowded.

Metro: Palais-Royal Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7) and Pyramides (line 14)

Telephone : +33 (0)1 40 20 53 17

The least crowded months for visiting the Louvre are November and January. The best time to visit is on Thursday or during nighttime hours, especially Friday night.

You’ll have to check everything except a small handbag.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my must know tips for visiting the Louvre. Here are some of my other Paris travel guides and resources:

• 5 day itinerary for Paris
• 3 day itinerary for Paris
• 2 day itinerary for Paris
• Hidden gems in Paris
• Guide To Montmartre
• Guide To the Latin Quarter
• Guide to the Marais
• Best Museums in Paris
• Louvre Survival Tips
• Guide To the Musee d’Orsay
• Secret Day Trips from Paris

If you’d need tips for visiting the Louvre, pin it for later.

2 thoughts on “Must Know Tips For The Louvre: How To Prepare For Your Visit”

This blog is gold. Thank you.

Aw, thank you so much Lauren!

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Last Updated on January 16, 2024 by Leslie Livingston

Seasonal tales

Louvre museum makes its entire collection available online

The Louvre museum in Paris said Friday it has put nearly half a million items from its collection online for the public to visit free of charge.

Issued on: 26/03/2021 - 19:09

As part of a major revamp of its online presence, the world's most-visited museum has created a new database of 482,000 items at collections.louvre.fr with more than three-quarters already labelled with information and pictures.

It comes after a year of pandemic-related shutdowns that has seen an explosion in visits to its main website, louvre.fr, which has also been given a major makeover.

"It's a step that has been in preparation for several years with the aim of serving the general public as well as researchers. Accessibility is at the heart of our mission," said president-director Jean-Luc Martinez.

The new database includes not only items on public display in the museum but also those in storage, including at its new state-of-the-art facility at Lievin in northern France .

#ArtExplora supports @MuseeLouvre . The even more visual, user-friendly, and immersive website will allow you to appreciate the museum’s collections as if you where physically amongst them. Thanks to https://t.co/P4yZypRvof , art will come to you. #cultureforall #art pic.twitter.com/nOHWOzF9aU — Art Explora (@explora_art) March 26, 2021

The platform also includes the Delacroix museum, which is run by the Louvre , as well as sculptures from the neighbouring Tuileries gardens and works recovered from Germany since the end of the war in 1945 that are waiting to be restored to the families from which they were looted.

The museum announced earlier this month that it would intensify its efforts to restore items looted from Jewish families by the Nazi regime.

It is working to complete the verification of all 13,943 items acquired between 1933 and 1945, a process it hopes to complete within five years, to be followed by investigations on works acquired in later decades.

Martinez estimated that around one percent of portraits in the collections were looted.

"The Louvre has nothing to hide, and the reputational risk is enormous," he said. "When the next generations want to know where these collections came from, how do we react? By doing the historical work and establishing the facts."

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Is There a Virtual Tour of the Louvre?

Located along the Seine River in Paris, France, the Louvre is not only the largest art museum in the world, but it’s also the most visited, welcoming millions of people each year. But not everyone can make it to France to see the historic building that originally served as a castle for Philip II, especially with a pandemic going on. For this reason, the museum, which opened in 1793, offers virtual tours of both the facility and its exhibitions and galleries. All you have to do is visit the museum’s website . Once you finish up there, you can find even more virtual tours of the Louvre online.

Which Virtual Tours Are Available?

When you visit the Louvre’s website, you’ll find a handful of virtual tours available at any given time. They’re subject to change as exhibitions inside the museum change, but you’ll usually get a chance to see some of the museum’s most popular exhibits and galleries in the tours on offer. 

You might catch a glimpse of “Egyptian Antiquities,” which features artifacts from the Pharaonic period, or “Body in Movement,” which is all about dance. You can also virtually tour the remains of the Louvre’s moat, which was built around 1200 by King Phillipe Auguste to protect Paris.

Other Online Activities at the Louvre

Once you’ve finished checking out virtual tours on the museum’s site, you can take a look at some of the other virtual resources the Louvre offers, all of which are family-friendly. One is the Mona Lisa virtual reality app that you can download for your iPhone or Android smartphone. The museum also offers a short children’s program via YouTube called “One Minute in a Museum.” It features three cartoon characters checking out various works of art that are on display at the Louvre. Speaking of YouTube, there’s an entire playlist set up on the Musee du Louvre account that features various famous YouTubers exploring the museum. Finally, you can visit the “A Closer Look” page of the museum’s website to learn more about some of the more famous art there via various forms of multimedia.

Other Sources for Virtual Louvre Tours

Beyond the Louvre’s website, there are countless other sources online that allow you to tour the museum without leaving the comfort of your home. A quick search will provide you with dozens of options. Some of the more popular ones are Youvisit.com , which provides a 360-degree view of various locations around the museum, and Openculture.com , which offers a list of different video tours.

Visiting the Louvre in Person

If you do ever plan to visit the Louvre in person, you can find it on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement in the heart of Paris. Both the Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro and the Louvre-Rivoli stations service the museum if you plan to take public transportation. Visitors can enter at the pyramid, which is considered the museum’s main entrance, or you can enter from Carrousel du Louvre, a mall that sits underground. A third entrance is at the Porte des Lions.

Origins of the Louvre

The Louvre was originally a castle built during the late 12th century for King Philip II of France, and remnants of this original structure are still visible in the current museum’s basement. By 1682, King Louis XIV decided to move the royal residence to the Palace of Versailles, and the Louvre was used to display the royal art collection, which included ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. During the French Revolution, the Louvre became a public museum, and it officially opened its doors in 1793 with about 700 paintings and other works of art. Initially, the public could visit for free on a few days each week.

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19 Virtual Museums Tours You Can Take Right Now for Free

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From Paris's Louvre, to The Vatican, and the MET, there are a variety of museums offering interactive virtual tours. That means you can travel from continent to continent from the comfort of your home, while perusing the finest art and artifacts in your pajamas . Not to mention, they're also a great activity to entertain your kids.

Below we detail the virtual museum tours that'll take you away on an instant adventure.

The Paris historical monument is the world's biggest museum (and home to the Mona Lisa) and is currently offering tours of four exhibits: The Advent of the Artist, Egyptian Antiquities, Remains of the Louvre's Moat, and Galerie d'Apollon.

The Guggenheim

The museum will hold its interactive family tours on select Sundays despite the fact that this New York institute is currently closed. You can also peruse selections from their 8,000-piece artwork collection.

Try the Tour Now

The National Gallery

London's National Gallery has a Google virtual tour of its Renaissance collection, the Sainsbury Wing which contains more than 270 paintings, and look at 18 other fascinating rooms.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Washington, D.C's National Museum of Natural History provides a room-by-room virtual tour of the entire building, including the main rotunda where you're greeted by a beautiful elephant, the butterfly pavilion, and "Sea Monsters Unearthed."

Hirshhorn Museum

Enjoy relaxing nature views, with a side of art, thanks to virtual tours of the grounds' two sculpture gardens and a close look at the building's exterior.

National Portrait Gallery

In addition to its main hall, London's National Portrait Gallery includes virtual tours of art from six galleries, including the English kings of the 15th century Tudor period and pieces created during Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901.

National Museum of Asian Art

In addition to 13 online exhibits and 36,750 items in their collection available to view online, there are indoor and outdoor virtual tours of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, which make up the National Museum of Asian Art.

National Air and Space Museum

The most-visited museum in the country currently has 49 online exhibits, 1,971 items to view in its online collection, and virtual tours of the first and second floors, and its companion facility, the Udvar-Hazy Center's first and second floor at the Washington Dulles International Airport.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Located in NYC, and the biggest museum in the United States, The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides six quick videos that give 360° views of key parts of the grounds, including the great hall.

Musée d’Orsay

Displaying art from 1848 to 1914, the Parisian museum offers a free virtual walking tour and a 278-piece online collection.

The Vatican Museum

Comprised of art collected by the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church over centuries, you can treat yourself to seven free online 360° tours, which include the famed Sistine Chapel and the Pio Clementino Museum.

Van Gogh Museum

Virtually travel to Amsterdam and view the celebrated Dutch painter's largest collection of works with the help of Google Arts and Culture.

Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam's arts and history museum allows access to 14 multimedia tours if you download their app, available in the Apple Store and Google Play .

The J. Paul Getty Museum

The Los Angeles art museum has two online exhibits—Heaven, Hell, and Dying Well and Eat, Drink, and Be Merry—in addition to more than 15,000 pieces in an online collection and a virtual look at the grounds.

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Dedicated to the life and legacy of the renowned "Mother of American modernism," the New Mexico facility offers six online exhibits.

T hyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Spain's premiere art gallery offers "immersive virtual tours" for those with access to smart phones and virtual reality glasses, in addition to tours of their extensive permanent collection and 10 temporary exhibitions of past and present.

NASA offers a variety of interactive virtual tours through both their site and app, from a look at their flying observatory to the Hubble Space Telescope.

High Museum of Art

View the Atlanta museum's four online exhibitions, including the enlightening Photos from the Civil Rights Movement and How Iris van Herpen Transformed Fashion.

Museum of Fine Arts

The Boston gallery has 17 virtual collections, with an extensive look at 20th and 21st century designer fashion, photography, and works by African American artists.

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Louvre Virtual Tour Part One: From Medieval Fortress to Royal Residence

Discover the fascinating story of the Louvre through its masterpieces with our virtual tour

• tour overview
• tour description
• tour reviews

duration 1.5 hours

Tour Overview

No art gallery on earth can quite measure up to the extraordinary Louvre - a jaw-dropping sequence of palaces and echoing halls housing tens of thousands of wonderful artworks, from ancient artefacts to the most iconic paintings of the Renaissance and beyond. In the company of expert guide Thomas, we’ll be tracing the long and complex story of the Louvre itself - from imposing medieval fortress to royal palace to the massive people’s art gallery we know today. The history of the Louvre tells the story of France itself, and our virtual tour will trace the profound links between art and history as told by the extraordinary gallery’s most spectacular artworks. Part one of our Louvre Virtual Tour traces the story of the gallery from its origins in the 1200s through to 1600, taking in masterpieces like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa along the way. Be sure to pair your tour with part two, where we'll be following the story through to the present day! If the day of the week or start time of this group tour doesn't work for you, please email us at [email protected] to arrange a suitable alternative date.

• A history of the Louvre, as told by the artworks housed inside
• Expert English-speaking licensed guide
• Interactive Q and A with Thomas

Tour Description

Meet your guide: thomas.

Hi, I’m Thomas. A native of Florida, I studied History in the United States and France, Art History in France and Italy, and Archaeology in Italy. I am one of four brothers, one of many Tolkien fans, and one of very few native English-speaking licensed tour guides in Rome, where I have lived and worked with Through Eternity Tours since 2006. My particular interests are medieval history, Baroque painting, pork products, tasty cakes, and full-figured red wines. I speak English, French, Italian, a smattering of Spanish, and a few German swear words.

What Exactly is a Through Eternity Virtual Tour?   

The world of travel might be on hold right now, but just because we're all staying at home to help the world overcome a common enemy doesn't mean we have to put our wanderlust on the back burner. Frustrated with not being able to get our travel fix, we decided to transform our award-winning tours into immersive virtual experiences, meaning you can still explore Italy’s spectacular archaeological sites and jaw-dropping museums from the comfort of your own home. 

* Please note that the booking times are in US Eastern Standard Time and Rome, Italy CET is 6 hours ahead *  

Fun and informative , our virtual tours take the form of online  real-time presentations  led by our  expert guides . Combining videos, high-definition photos and more, our guides will be sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience with you on these interactive walkthroughs of Italy’s most fascinating sites. The  live format  of our virtual tours means you’ll be able to ask your guide anything you wish, just like on a normal tour. We really believe it's the next best thing to being here!

As a sign of our gratitude to those who are on the front line fighting the Coronavirus, we would be more than happy to invite all  first responders ,  health workers  and  NHS workers  to join our Virtual Tours for free. Please message our office staff directly!

Please note that the proceeds from our online tours go directly to our guides, providing them with a valuable lifeline in these tough times for the world of travel. Thank you for your support!  

Tour Reviews

5.0 (8 reviews)

A very good presentation, lots of information and history with fun facts. Thomas was engagnig and we would recommend him to others. We hope to catch part two sometime soon.

Vincent - May 10, 2021

Thomas has done it again with a tour that is jam-packed with historical information, creativity, and laughter. I knew very little about this time period and have become so fascinated by it. Thomas is so enthusiastic when he speaks....has so much energy and truly captivates his audience. There is plenty of opportunity for questions and conversation after the tour. I'd highly recommend!

Stephanie - Feb 21, 2021

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The 19 best virtual museum tours in the world

Words:  Bea Mitchell

| 1 min read

With a virtual tour , visitors can view world-class collections from the comfort of home

The global outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 prompted something of a digital revolution. Schools went online, employees worked from home, and museum tours became virtual.

Blooloop takes a look at some of the top virtual tours from France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, the Netherlands and China, as well as the US and UK. Keep reading for the best online offerings from the likes of the Louvre, British Museum , Rijksmuseum and MoMA.

1 Louvre Museum, Paris, France

As well as virtual tours , the Louvre recently put its entire art collection of more than 480,000 works online . The interactive database boasts rare items and iconic artworks, including the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa and Winged Victory of Samothrace. Users can explore the museum via an interactive map .

“Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known. 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,” said Jean-Luc Martinez , president of the Musée du Louvre.

“The Louvre’s stunning cultural heritage is all now just a click away. I am sure that this digital content is going to further inspire people to come to the Louvre to discover the collections in person.”

2 Vatican Museums, Rome, Italy

Founded in the early 16th century by Pope Julius II, the Vatican Museums house one of the world’s biggest art collections of around 70,000 works. The Vatican Museums showcase artworks from the Catholic Church’s collections, including Roman sculptures and Renaissance art. Highlights include Egyptian mummies, old masters, statues, rooms painted by Raphael and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.

Virtual visitors can enjoy tours of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Library’s great hall, the Salone Sistino. Also available are tours of the Profane Museum, Pio Clementino Museum, Raphael’s Rooms and the Niccoline Chapel.

3 Natural History Museum, London, UK

London’s Natural History Museum has various virtual exploration tools , including a self-guided tour of the galleries, access to 300,000 specimens from the collection, and audio guides narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature , which recently opened in London, is also available as a virtual exhibition on Google Arts & Culture.

Guests can explore an online world brimming with real and magical beasts, alongside highlights, stories and games. The online exhibit is a social offering with quizzes, facts and videos, while augmented reality (AR) is used to ‘invite animals into your living room’.

“We really explore the storytelling aspect of science and discovery,” said exhibition lead Louis Buckley . “With some mythical beings like dragons, unicorns, mermaids, there are clearly parallels between real things people have seen, and these mythical beings have roots in interpretations of things that haven’t been understood at that point in time, so it’s a great way to draw out messages of discovery and the evolution of knowledge.”

4 The National Gallery, London, UK

The National Gallery in London offers various virtual tours , allowing armchair visitors to step inside the gallery and experience the vast collections of paintings from their computer, smartphone or VR headset. Users will immerse themselves in Renaissance art from Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, including works by Titian, Veronese, and Holbein.

The Director’s Choice is a virtual exhibition for 2021 showing a selection of paintings chosen and narrated by Dr Gabriele Finaldi. Also available from the National Gallery is a virtual reality (VR) tour of the Sainsbury Wing , showing off its collection of early Renaissance paintings from 1200 to 1500.

5 Frida Kahlo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico

The Frida Kahlo Museum offers a virtual tour of Frida Kahlo’s colourful house in Mexico City, known as the Blue House (La Casa Azul). Located in the Del Carmen neighbourhood of Coyoacán, the residence is where Kahlo lived for most of her life. It became a museum in 1958 following her death in 1954.

The online tour takes visitors through the house and gardens and offers a look at a selection of Kahlo’s art. The Blue House showcases the artist’s personal belongings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, documents and furniture.

6 Picasso Museum, Barcelona, Spain

The Picasso Museum, which opened in Barcelona in 1963, houses one of the world’s biggest collections of artworks by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, with 4,251 works in its permanent collection.

Virtual offerings include an interactive exploration of the museum’s courtyards for a journey through the history of Barcelona, as well as a tour of the various places where Picasso lived, worked and visited. This includes the Picasso family’s first lodgings in Barcelona, other family apartments, and Picasso’s first and last studios.

7 The British Museum, London, UK

The British Museum was founded in 1753 and opened its doors in London in 1759. The institution’s vast collection spans two million years of history and culture and attracts more than 6 million visitors each year.

Virtual tours are available via Google Arts & Culture, with objects in the collection including the Rosetta Stone, Parthenon sculptures and Egyptian mummies. Online guests can explore the outdoor and indoor areas of the museum and enjoy a detailed look at 7,301 items. Online exhibits include ‘Buddhist art in Myanmar’, ‘Egypt: faith after the pharaohs’ and ‘Celtic life in Iron Age Britain’. 

The British Museum was offering virtual visits before the outbreak of COVID-19 . In 2019, it expanded its ‘virtual visits’ programme, which allows school pupils to experience the collection remotely.

“Pupils from Andover to Aberdeen and Brecon to Belfast can now experience some of the museum’s incredible treasures from their own classroom, potentially sparking a lifelong curiosity in the history of the world,” said Hartwig Fischer , director of the British Museum.

8 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao building boasts 24,000 square metres of space, 9,000 square metres of which is dedicated to exhibitions. Google Arts & Culture is home to plenty of virtual offerings from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, including online exhibits, videos and images.

It also includes highlights from the collection and a guided tour through four paintings by Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, James Rosenquist, and Sigmar Polke. Users can get a closer look at iconic contemporary artworks and take a virtual tour around the spaces and terraces of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

9 Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Anne Frank House is a museum dedicated to Jewish diarist Anne Frank. Located on a canal called the Prinsengracht, Anne Frank House can be found in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Virtual visitors can explore the Secret Annex , the place where Anne lived in hiding for more than two years during WWII, and where she wrote her diary.

This is also available in virtual reality with the free ‘Anne Frank House VR’ app. In addition, a video diary offers a look at Anne’s life in the Secret Annex, and digital guests can tour the house where she and her family lived before going into hiding on Google Arts & Culture.

“We feel that this is an appropriate destination for Anne Frank’s former home. It is a place where freedom, tolerance, and free speech are given free rein. The 360-degree images allow us to share this special place with the public,” said Ronald Leopold , executive director of the Anne Frank House.

10 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, US

Founded in 1929, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York houses a vast collection of more than 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, models and objects. Highlights include Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

The collection can be viewed online , while 129 artworks from the collection are on Google Arts & Culture. MoMA also launched ‘Virtual Views’, which offers virtual explorations with curators. On June 24, Virtual Views is hosting a live Q&A with artist Julie Mehretu, in conjunction with the Cézanne Drawing exhibition.

11 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Rijksmuseum is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and boasts famous works of art such as The Milkmaid by Vermeer and Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. The museum’s 80 galleries feature 8,000 objects exploring 800 years of Dutch history and art.

Google Arts & Culture has plenty of digital Rijksmuseum offerings , including 164,511 items from the collection and tours of the museum’s interior spaces. The Rijksmuseum i s located at the Museum Square in Amsterdam, close to the Van Gogh Museum. The main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885.

12 Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Situated on the banks of the Seine in Paris, the Musée d’Orsay can be found in the former Orsay railway station, built between 1898 and 1900. The museum in France displays art from 1848 to 1914, including works by Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Renoir. As well as exhibits and 277 items from the Musée d’Orsay’s collection, Google Arts & Culture includes a virtual tour of the museum itself.

The Art Newspaper recently unveiled the world’s top 100 art museums in its survey for 2020, revealing the devastating impact of COVID-19 on museums as physical attendance dropped by 77 percent globally. The Musée d’Orsay welcomed 867,274 visitors in 2020, a decline of 76 percent from 2019.

13 São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), Brazil

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) was founded in 1947 as Brazil’s first modern museum. MASP’s collection contains more than 8,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs, and costumes from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Art fans who can’t currently get to Brazil can head to Google Arts & Culture to take a virtual tour of the São Paulo Museum of Art . Virtual guests can also check out MASP’s online exhibits, as well as 1,011 items from the collection. In addition, MASP offers digital programming such as home drawing, live events with guests, lectures and seminars.

14 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

The National Gallery of Victoria, also known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, the NGV is the oldest and largest art museum in Australia. In addition to the NGV Triennial 2020 virtual tours, the National Gallery of Victoria allows visitors to explore a wealth of exhibits and collections online .

This includes the modern and contemporary art and design collection, the British and European collections, and the 19th century and 20th-century Australian art collections. Virtual self-guided tours of exhibits include ‘Big Weather’ and ‘Marking Time: Indigenous Art from the NGV’.

15 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, US

The National Gallery of Art is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The US museum preserves, collects and exhibits works of art, and is home to more than 150,000 items, from paintings, prints and drawings to sculptures, photographs and decorative arts. The National Gallery of Art covers two buildings, as well as a sculpture garden.

Virtual visitors can enjoy 42,462 items on the museum’s Google Arts & Culture site, grouped under categories such as Renaissance, Impressionism and Art Nouveau. Guests also have the option to explore the NGA collection on the museum’s website, where they will also find a blog, podcast and virtual cinema.

16 Hong Kong Heritage Museum, China

The Hong Kong Heritage Museum, which launched in December 2000, is a space to explore Hong Kong culture. This includes art, design, pop culture and photography, as well as Cantonese opera. The destination is located in Sha Tin, adjacent to the Shing Mun River.

It houses a wide range of exhibitions and programmes, some of which are available on Google Arts & Culture. Virtual collections encompass digital art and Hong Kong , while 144 items from the museum’s collections are accessible. Users can also take a virtual tour of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

17 Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is an art museum in Madrid, Spain. Located near the Prado Museum, the institution is named after its founder, Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, and his son Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. The museum offers an overview of art from the 13th century to the late 20th century and includes works from the Renaissance and Impressionists, as well as Pop Art and much more.

The website includes an extensive virtual tour , with users able to select which floors and rooms they would like to visit. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is also on Google Arts & Culture , which offers a tour, online exhibits and items from the collection .

18 National Palace Museum, Taipei City, Taiwan

The National Palace Museum is located in Taipei, Taiwan. It boasts a vast permanent collection of nearly 700,000 artefacts and artworks, covering 8,000 years of Chinese history. The museum has been working on making its national treasures more accessible globally through online offerings.

The National Palace Museum website includes a large-scale virtual tour of the museum grounds and exhibits, as well as online routes for digital visitors. It’s also on Google Arts & Culture, where users will discover online exhibits, virtual tours, collections, and 831 items to explore in greater detail.

19 J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, US

The J Paul Getty Museum opened at the $1.3 billion Getty Center in Los Angeles, California in December 1997. It boasts works of art dating from the 8th century to the 21st century, as well as gardens and incredible views of LA. The collection includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, decorative arts and photographs. The J Paul Getty Museum has another location at the Getty Villa in Malibu.

Online exhibits such as ‘Faces of Roman Egypt’ and ‘Contemporary Voices in Asian American Photography’ are on Google Arts & Culture, as is a tour of the museum in LA . Virtual visitors can also check out 71,190 items from the Getty’s collection. The Getty Museum is active online; it previously launched a social media challenge and put more than 70,000 artworks on Nintendo’s Animal Crossing .

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Bea Mitchell

More from this author, exploring the future of museums at cta 2024: sustainability, inclusivity & engagement, history attracts a new crowd: the immersive revolution in museums, 5 best-practice ticketing recommendations for museums & heritage attractions in 2024, immersive art and the ecosystem it lacks, university museums are experiencing a renaissance, a covid inquiry for visitor attractions: are we better prepared now, enjoying this article, search for something, eden project's event lets guests co-create new morecambe site, smithsonian museum's new ar experience brings history to life, therme group partners with sk ecoplant on new south korea site, wales' national museums to axe at least 90 jobs after budget cut, related content, a journey through the king's legacy at direct from graceland: elvis, exhibits development group takes bookings for sell-out evolution dinosaur exhibition, digitickets improves booking experience for west somerset railway with new integrated website journey, beckhoff automation drives citroën 2cv installation at classic car house.

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"Mona Lisa Beyond the Glass": the Louvre's first Virtual Reality experience

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23 October 2019

As part of the landmark exhibition Leonardo da Vinci (24 October 2019 - 24 February 2020), the Louvre will present the museum’s first virtual reality (VR) experience, in partnership with HTC VIVE Arts, which will bring to life the story of the  Mona Lisa , da Vinci’s most famous masterpiece.

The VR experience,  Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass , will provide an opportunity for visitors to interact with the painting in virtual space. Viewers will have the rare chance to be immersed into the world’s most iconic painting, stepping behind the glass to access the intriguing portrait up close in an entirely new, transformative way.

With  Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass , visitors will be able to discover details hidden to the naked eye in one of the most popular works of art. Incorporating new scientific research which has revealed the techniques the artist used to create the masterpiece as well as further information on the identity of the sitter, participants will be presented with an intimate look at a painting which has been the subject of fascination and intrigue for generations.

Produced in close collaboration with the Louvre’s own curatorial team for this unprecedented retrospective of the artist, this creative virtual reality experience will allow audiences around the world to gain new insight into the  Mona Lisa . The VR experience will also be available as a home version on HTC’s digital subscription service, VIVEPORT, alongside other online VR platforms, allowing audiences around the world to access  Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass .

' On the occasion of the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition and for the very first time, the Musée du Louvre is delighted to present a virtual reality experience, in partnership with HTC Vive Arts. The public will be able to discover an immersive experience with an extraordinary masterpiece. This collaboration will allow visitors to meet and learn more about the Mona Lisa herself, beyond the myths and legends that have surrounded her for over 500 years. '

Dominique de Font-Réaulx

Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass  will reflect Leonardo da Vinci’s own revolutionary practice as a true Renaissance polymath, working in science, engineering, architecture and art. The virtual reality experience will pay tribute to an artist who constantly embraced innovation throughout the course of his wide-ranging influential career and will celebrate da Vinci’s enduring legacy as one of the greatest painters in history.

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DIGITAL LOUVRE

In the article Digital Louvre, I analyze the different interactive digital tools provided by the Louvre Museum both on the web, and in the museum facilities, to facilitate the understanding of its contents.

The website of the Louvre Museum has an interactive map called Virtual Tour that allows us to go through the complex map of the museum and open a large number of images and visualize each space, before visiting it.

Virtual Tour is an interactive map with multiple images

You can access to Virtual Tour .

As part of the Digital Louvre, the Virtual Tour is a tool that facilitates the location of points of interest and the appearance of the exhibition space we are going to visit. It is an essential support, taking into account the dimensions of the building, with numerous wings and galleries.

The most visited work in the Prado Museum is Leonardo da Vinci’s Gioconda or Mona Lisa. Given its importance, it is surrounded by security measures that include thick glass.

Visitor cannot stay in front of the painting for more than 30 seconds.

These circumstances have led the Louvre Museum to present a proposal based on virtual reality that allows on the one hand to visualize the work as a whole and in all its details and on the other to bring the character to life. The application is called Mona Lisa Beyond the Glass, which has been produced by the company HTC.

Mona Lisa beyond the glass a virtual reality experience

The Digital Louvre has created a virtual reality experience for the Mona Lisa beyond the glass , and users achieve a far superior experience to what is possible today in physical contemplation, which is limited by three factors:

• Small dimensions of the painting (77 cm. x 53cm).
• Crowding of visitors.
• Strict security measures that place the painting behind thick glass, within a complex security system.

It is in these cases that augmented reality takes on special relevance, compensating, at least in part, for the limitations of live contemplation or at least complementing it.

We can analyze your creative process. We can look at your composition and the techniques used.

Leonardo created a new way of making portraits

Leonardo created a new way of making portraits, which until now could only be seen so closely by the museum’s own curators.

As for the recreation of the character, the figure has been modelled in full-body 3D and its environment and the imaginary landscape that serves as a background for the work have been recreated.

It is the first time the museum has used virtual reality

It is the first time the museum has used virtual reality.

This is an experiment aimed at visitors, who seek a better understanding of the painting.

X-ray and infrared reflectography techniques have been used to visualize the various layers with which the painting has been painted.

I recommend viewing the following video on You Tube describing the project by its protagonists:

One part of the Louvre Museum’s website has a section where specific aspects are narrated that bring us closer to the art and works of the museum from different perspectives:

. A closer look

. Tales of of the museum

. Thematic mini-sites

A closer look, treats certain works in detail

The website has a very interesting section called “a closer look” where certain works considered to be of special relevance within the artistic heritage of the museum are dealt with in detail. Currently, 13 works of very diverse origin, format and period are shown. They are paintings, sculptures or decorative arts.

Each work treated in “a closer look” is approached from several points of view:

. Observe : this is a visual tour of the work as a whole or in detail. For this we have high definition images, which allow us to zoom in on the various parts that make it up. The application itself suggests the parts of the piece that deserve to be observed in detail.

. Understand: here by means of an audio-visual it contextualizes us the work, his author, if he is known, the epoch in which it was realized, the vicissitudes that it has suffered up to belonging to the collections of the museum and everything what allows us to know the environment that has surrounded it up to today.

Observe, Understand, Compare, Conserve and Define of the pieces through multimedia and digital Louvre solutions

. Compare : it places the work in front of another one with similar characteristics as regards composition and execution techniques. The support used in this case is a text.

. Conserve : the process of restoration and conservation of each work is essential for us to be able to appreciate that what we are looking at is the work of a universal artist, but for us to be able to enjoy it today in its fullness, many and very delicate conservation efforts have been necessary, carried out by experts.

. Definitions : we have an online dictionary that describes all the terms used in the different multimedia supports, so that we can understand correctly what is described.

Tales of the museum, are animated films aimed at children where the adventures of some pieces are narrated until they are acquired by the museum.

Tales of the museum, a series of animated films for children

Thematic mini-sites, are small websites integrated within the museum’s website, where the highlights of the various temporary exhibitions at the Louvre are described. There are mini-sites dedicated to Alexander the Great, Rembrand, Ancient Russia, the Venetian Renaissance, Babylon, etc.

El Louvre DNP Museum Lab ha creado dos espacios interactivos sobre el Antiguo Egipto y la Pintura Española

Louvre DNP Museum Lab has developed two interactive multimedia spaces.

The first is dedicated to ancient Egypt. The museum uses an interactive system that gives access, through large touch screens and in a playful way, to traditions and customs. A multimedia application helps us to decipher a funerary stele.

In the second interactive space is dedicated to understanding the masterpieces of Zurbarán, Murillo and Goya.

In addition, the museum has a series of databases corresponding to the different departments of the museum in which its works are classified together with a description of them. These tools make it possible to organize the visit according to the interests of each individual or to guide a research project. All this information is available on the website of the Louvre Museum.

Louvre Museum has recently signed an agreement with Accenture Interactive

Louvre Museum has recently signed an agreement with Accenture Interactive to carry out the museum’s Strategic Plan in the digital area.

The Strategic Plan includes:

. Enrich the visitors’ experience before, during and after the visit. . Create tools for employees to interact with visitors . Improve the exchange of knowledge and the exhibition of art collections with the public, scientists and researchers, in person or through the Internet.

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360° virtual tours

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Explore the Palace of Versailles and relive its temporary exhibitions remotely, with our collection of 360° virtual tours. 

Horace vernet 

Find all the artworks in this exhibition in a unique setting using 360° photo technology. An immersive experience, to discover the world of Horace Vernet. A key figure at Versailles during the reign of  Louis-Philippe , the artist produced, over period of 13 years, some of the most beautiful paintings in the  Historical Galleries , making Versailles home to the largest collection of his works today.

Curator:  Valérie Bajou, General Curator at the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon.

Discover the exhibition     Discover the tour

louis xv passions of a king exhibition (2023)

Discover all the works of this exhibition in a unique scenography thanks to the 360° photo technology. An immersive experience, to discover the passions of Louis XV.

Curators : Yves Carlier, Chief Heritage Curator at the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Hélène Delalex, Heritage Curator at the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon.

the king's animals exhibition (2021-2022)

The Palace of Versailles, located in the heart of a huge forest in Île-de-France, has fostered the development of a new relationship with the animal world. From the object of study and collection to the animal as a political attribute and symbol of power, what relations did the Court have with pets, wild and exotic animals?

Exhibition curators : Alexandre Maral, Curator General, Head of the Sculpture Department of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon and Nicolas Milovanovic, Head Curator of the Paintings Department of the Louvre Museum.

hyacinthe rigaud or the sun portrait exhibition (2021)

The palace of Versailles presents the first major monographic exhibition dedicated to the work of  Hyacinthe Rigaud . This most famous portraitist of the Sun King dominated portraiture for nearly a century and set new codes in the discipline.

Exhibition curators : Laurent Salomé, Director of the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Élodie Vaysse, Curator of Heritage and Ariane James-Sarazin, Curator General of Heritage, Deputy Director of the Musée de l'Armée.

Discover the exhibition      Discover the tour

versailles revival exhibition (2020)

The exhibition «Versailles Revival» shows the enthusiasm and passion for the Versailles of the Ancien Régime, which developed a hundred years after the French Revolution through 350 works, documents and photographs. In parallel, the Republic gathers its assemblies and receives foreign sovereigns, gardens attract tourists and large waters become a popular destination. 

Exhibition curator : Laurent Salomé, Director of the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon et Claire Bonnotte, scientific collaborator of the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon.

the king is dead exhibition (2015-2016)

The exhibition explores the role of the king’s death in the monarchical imagination and court society, placing the death of Louis XIV in the context of the funeral rituals of European rulers from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It presents major works of art and historical documents, some of which have never been exhibited before, relating to the survival of this ritual after the French Revolution .

Exhibition curators : Béatrix Saule, Director and Head Curator of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, assisted by Hélène Delalex, Conservation Officer at the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon

versailles and the ancient exhibition (2012-2013)

A political and aesthetic ideal, antiquity was glorified in all the courts of Europe since the Renaissance and the Greek and Roman remains were collected with passion by the princes and powerful. But with the reign of Louis XIV, this admiration took on a completely different dimension. To impose in the eyes of all the advent of the absolute monarchy and the power of France, the Sun King conceived his palace as a new Rome dedicated to the cult of Apollo, as well as a sanctuary for his prestigious collection of statues, busts, vases, cameos and medals.

Discover the tour

wardrobe of LOUIS xvi

The wardrobe cabinet , made in 1788, is considered the masterpiece of Versailles royal art. It is a small cabinet of about 13 m2, located in the interior apartment of Louis XVI and accessible through a hidden door. The white and golden woodwork is unique in Europe and represents a peak of French decorative art of the 18th century.  

napoléon rooms

The Napoleonic collections are now presented in several spaces in the palace: in the Coronation Chamber showcasing Napoleon 's rise to become Emperor ; in the rooms known as the « Revolution Room », the « Consulate Room » and the « Empire Room », on the ground floor of the South Wing, presenting the most important moments in Napoleon's rise and his reign in the political, military, diplomatic and dynastic domains ; and in the Gallery of Battles , on the first floor of the same wing. On the second floor, known as the Chimay and South Attics, the story of Napoleon is illustrated by other works, accompanied by many portraits of the Emperor's entourage and the society of his time.

Voyage d’hiver 2017-2018

12 World-Class Museums You Can Visit Online

By rudie obias | mar 10, 2023, 12:34 pm est.

While it’s hard to beat the experience of seeing a seminal piece of fine art or important historical artifact with your own two eyes, you could easily spend a lifetime traveling the world in search of all of them. Fortunately, the digital age has made it possible—easy, even—to visit some of the world’s most famous museums from the comfort of your own home. Here are a dozen of them.

1. The Louvre

The Louvre is not only one of the world’s largest art museums, but it’s also one of Paris’s most iconic historic monuments. The museum offers free online tours of some of its most important and popular exhibits, such as its Egyptian Antiquities and works from Michelangelo . You can take a 360-degree look at the museum, and click around the rare artifacts to get additional information on their histories.

2. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

While the architecture of the Guggenheim’s building itself, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is quite impressive, you don’t have to visit the Big Apple to get an up-close view of some of the priceless pieces of artwork inside. The museum makes some of its collections and exhibits available online for people who want to get a taste of what the museum has to offer, including works from Franz Marc, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, and Jeff Koons.

3. The National Gallery of Art

Founded in 1937, the National Gallery of Art is free and open to the general public. For those who aren’t in Washington, D.C., it also provides virtual tours of its gallery and exhibits. You can view its current exhibitions and listen to audio and video recordings of past lectures online.

More Articles About Museums:

4. The British Museum

With a collection that totals more than 8 million objects, London’s British Museum makes some of its pieces viewable online . The museum also teamed up with the Google Cultural Institute to offer virtual tours using Google Street View technology.

5. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Washington, D.C.’s National Museum of Natural History, one of the most-visited museums in the world, offers a peek at its wonderful treasures with an online virtual tour of the entire grounds. Viewers are welcomed into its rotunda and are greeted with a comprehensive room-by-room, 360-degree walking tour of all its exceptional exhibits, including the Hall of Mammals, Insect Zoo, and Dinosaurs and Hall of Paleobiology.

6. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met is home to over 2 million works of fine art, but you don’t have to be in New York City to enjoy them. The institution’s website features an online collection and virtual tours of some of its most impressive pieces, including works from Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, and Giotto di Bondone. In addition, The Met also works with the Google Cultural Institute to make even more artwork (that’s not featured in its own online collection) available for view.

7. The Dalí Theatre-Museum

Located in the town of Figueres in Catalonia, Spain, the Dalí Theatre-Museum is completely dedicated to the artwork of Salvador Dalí . It features many rooms and exhibits surrounding every era of Dalí’s life and career, and the artist himself is buried here. The museum offers virtual tours of the grounds and a few exhibits.

NASA offers free virtual tours of the Langley Research Center in Virginia, as well as of Ohio’s Glenn Research Center . The Space Center Houston also has an app that provides virtual tours, augmented reality experiences, and videos and audio stories about space exploration.

9. The Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums feature an extensive collection of important art and classical sculptures curated by the Popes over many centuries. You can take a virtual tour of the museum grounds and iconic exhibits, including Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel .

10. The National Women’s History Museum

The mission statement of the National Women’s History Museum in Alexandria, Virginia, is to educate, inspire, empower, and shape the future “by integrating women’s distinctive history and culture in the United States.” Part of that mission is delivered through well-curated online exhibits and oral histories .

11. The National Museum of the United States Air Force

As its name suggests, the National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force. Centered on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, it houses a wide array of military weapons and aircraft, including the presidential airplanes of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon. The museum also offers free virtual tours of its entire grounds, letting you glimpse objects like decommissioned aircraft from World War II, Vietnam, and the Korean War.

12. The Google Art Project

To help its users discover and view important artworks online in high resolution and detail, Google partnered with more than 1200 cultural institutions from around the world to archive and document priceless pieces of art and to provide virtual tours of museums using Google Street View technology. The Google Art Project features fine art from the White House, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, and even São Paulo street art from Brazil. Here’s a complete list of museums you can visit virtually.