The Louvre museum in Paris has just put its entire collection online. The entire collection consisting of more than 482,000 pieces will be on display online which makes it available for art lovers all over the world to view it from any where around for free.
The Louvre launched a new website where digitized, high-resolution versions of the artworks can be viewed. Of the 482,000 items in the collection, more than three quarters have already been labelled with information and pictures. The database contains works from the Louvre and Musee National Eugene-Delacroix, as well as sculptures from the Tuileries and Carrousel Gardens. In a press release, the museum stated that the collection ranges from works on display, those on long-term loan and even works in storage.
“Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known,” its president, Jean-Luc Martinez, 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.”
To browse through the entire collection online, visitors can use simple or advanced search features and look through themed albums. There is also an interactive map that allows them to move from one viewing room to another. In addition, the Louvre said the website is “updated regularly by museum experts”, which means the database will continually expand and “reflect advances in research”.
The Louvre says its main website, Louvre.fr, received 21 million visits in 2020. By comparison, the Louvre, one of the most visited museums in the world, welcomed about 10.2 million visitors in 2018. The new website has three main sections, including the explore section, which delves into the history of various parts of the museum and the artworks housed inside.
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.