The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has forced many, if not all, major museums, art galleries and cultural institutions to indefinitely close their doors to the public. But there are still ways you can get an eyeful of the art.
Google Arts and Culture hosts content from over 2,000 leading museums, and many popular tourist destinations have uploaded interactive experiences to their websites. Here are 40 of the best virtual museum tours.
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1. The Louvre, Paris
The iconic French museum — its pyramid entrance (pictured) features heavily in “The Da Vinci Code” — offers several virtual tours on its website. You can also virtually experience the Mona Lisa via a free smartphone app, available on iOS and Android.
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2. Vatican Museums, Vatican City, Rome
Take a 360-degree tour of the Vatican Museums’ most popular draws, including the Raphael Rooms, Pauline Halls and, of course, the Sistine Chapel.
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3. The British Museum, London
London’s public museum offers numerous ways to virtually view its expansive collections. See the Rosetta Stone by visiting the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery on Google Street View, then visit “some of the most fascinating objects in human history” via the online Museum of the World.
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4. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Fans of the famed artist can virtually visit some of his greatest works, including 200 paintings, 500 drawings and more than 750 letters, via Google Arts and Culture.
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5. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
The popular New York City museum recently partnered with Verizon to launch The Met Unframed, a mobile-only immersive art and gaming experience that features over a dozen digital galleries and nearly 50 works of art.
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6. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City
Take a virtual stroll down the Guggenheim’s famous spiral gallery, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, via Google Arts and Culture, then head over to the museum’s website to learn more about its collection. Serious art buffs can book a virtual group tour for $215 an hour for 20 participants, though there are discounts for larger groups, students or museum members.
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7. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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8. Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Learn how the famed Orsay railway station, designed by architect Victor Laloux, was transformed into the museum it is today in this Google Arts and Culture exhibit, then scroll through the museum’s online collection.
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9. Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City, Mexico
The museum, also known as La Casa Azul or The Blue House, was home to renowned Latin American artist Frida Kahlo for much of her life. (She died there in 1954.) Virtually tour its garden, studio and kitchen through Google Arts and Culture.
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10. Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands
Get more familiar with famed Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer by visiting this 3D virtual gallery of all his works, courtesy of the Mauritshuis museum.
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11. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Take a 360-degree virtual tour of the second-largest art museum in the world, which features more than three million works of art and artifacts.
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12. Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Brazil
Peruse six online collections from Brazil’s first modern museum through Google Arts and Culture, which includes works by Rafael, Monet, Degas, Cézanne and Van Gogh.
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13. The National Gallery, London
The museum partnered with Oculus to create a special virtual reality tour of its Sainsbury Wing, which features over 270 paintings from the early Renaissance. A 360-degree version of the experience is available on mobile and desktop devices.
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14. National Museum of Korea, Seoul
Take a 360-degree virtual tour of eight exhibits, including “10,000 Years of Design,” “Nomadic Empires of the Mongolian Steppes” and “The Etruscans: Rising to Rome” via the National Museum of Korea’s website.
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15. Pergamon museum, Berlin
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16. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Get up close and personal with Van Gogh’s “Irises” by taking the museum’s Google Arts and Culture virtual tour. You can also “visit” 20 online exhibits, including “Pastels in Pieces” and “Pride at Getty.”
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17. Tokyo National Museum
Virtually visit the museum, which houses artworks and antiquities from Japan and other Asian countries via Google Arts and Culture. The museum’s page also features a detailed look at “Maple Viewers” by 16th century artist Kano Hideyori.
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18. The Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
Get your contemporary art fix by virtually visiting The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by architect Frank Gehry via Google Arts and Culture. A video tour guided by free-runner Johan Tonnoir helps you get a better sense of the building, while the online exhibits let you get up close and personal with some of the museum’s most iconic artwork.
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19. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
Take a virtual stroll through the Gallery, which houses many notable works of the Renaissance era, including Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.”
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20. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
Bring the kids along on a virtual tour of the museum, accessible through both its website and Google Arts and Culture. You can even “stroll” through the gift shop.
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21. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
You can take four different virtual walks through the Dutch national museum, which houses many famous works by Vermeer and Rembrandt, via Google Arts and Culture.
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22. The Art Institute of Chicago
See pointillist Georges Seurat’s most famous work “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” on this virtual tour of one of the largest art museums in the U.S.
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23. Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece
Take a trip back to ancient Greece by virtually visiting this archaeological museum, which houses over 3.000 artifacts from the Athenian Acropolis.
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24. Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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25. Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
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26. National Museum in Kraków, Poland
Take one (or all) of four virtual tours of Poland’s largest museum before scrolling through six online exhibits, including a journey through Polish artist Józef Czapski’s painting “Train de Banlieue” on Google Arts and Culture.
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27. Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, Hungary
Virtually visit Hungary’s largest fine art museum, which features everything from prehistoric to modern art through Google Arts and Culture. You can also take a digital deep dive into “The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist” by Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
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28. La Galleria Nazionale, Rome, Italy
Lovers of modern Italian art can take a virtual tour of the museum’s Cortile dei Romani, Cortile dei Saturnali, central courtyard, entrance and main gallery. They can also view 16 online exhibits, including “Time Is Out of Joint,” which incorporates art from the 1800s to the present.
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29. Nationalmuseum Sweden, Stockholm
You can take a 360-degree tour of Sweden’s flagship art and design museum through Google Arts and Culture, before clicking through its online exhibit that celebrates Swedish women artists.
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30. The Cloisters, New York City
The Cloisters is a four-acre extension of The Metropolitan Museum of Art that highlights the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Take a virtual walk through its halls via Google Arts and Culture, where you can also learn more about a few of its signature items.
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31. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Peruse the museum’s collections of Australian, European and Asian art via four virtual tours and four online exhibits on Google Arts and Culture.
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32. The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
Take a virtual tour of the (formerly) private art collections of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., heir to the Chrysler Corporation, who donated more than 10,000 works of art to the city of Norfolk in 1971. The museum’s collection has expanded significantly since Chrysler died in 1988 and includes a lauded glass studio.
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33. Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
Get your fill of chiaroscuro (the use of contrast between light and dark) by virtually visiting the museum on Google Arts and Culture. Its page features 18 different digital walkthroughs and 16 online exhibits, including three showcases of the works of Italian painter (and chiaroscuro king) Caravaggio.
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34. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
You can take a 360-degree tour of Norway’s largest museum on Google Arts and Culture, then head over to its website, which lets virtual visitors assemble their own collections.
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35. Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna
Get your fill of Baroque art by virtually visiting this UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, which previously served as the summer residence for Habsburg Monarchy.
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36. American Museum of Natural History, New York City
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37. Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan
Virtual museum-goers can spend a ton of time at northern Italy’s modern art museum, which hosts eight digital tours and six online exhibits on its Google Arts and Culture page. You can also access virtual reality tours of the museum by installing the Google Arts and Culture app, available for Android and iOS.
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38. Vancouver Art Gallery
You can take a virtual trip through Canada’s colorful art museum via Google Arts and Culture. Be sure to also check out its online modern art exhibit from novelist and artist Douglas Coupland.
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39. Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba
Get a look inside Brazil’s visual arts, architecture and design museum by taking the 360-degree on Google Arts and Culture. You can also scroll through 16 online exhibits, including one that features the works of Brazilian furniture designers Humberto and Fernando Campana.
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40. Château de Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau, France
Virtually visit the former residence of all the French monarchs via Google Arts and Culture. The castle’s 1,500 rooms now showcase close to 30,000 works of art.
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