Museums Online | The Ancient Art Blog

Open-Access Museum Collection Databases

The Louvre Museum (Paris, France)

https://collections.louvre.fr/

Newly launched in 2021 (replacing the old "Atlas" database), this online collection contains over 480,000 entries, and is being updated continuously. The site has both browse and search functions, as well as themed albums.

Note: search seems to work correctly only in french, so if you are a non-francophone, use google translate to find out your search terms in French.

The British Museum (London, UK)

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection

Newly designed and launched in 2020, this database provides entries on their entire collection of art and archaeological artifacts from around the world, although only some entries have images.

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East - Sketchfab page

https://sketchfab.com/hmane/models

Over 1000 3D models of artifacts.

The Metropolitan Museum (New York, USA)

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection

Full database of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes objects from the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, Europe, Near Eastern, African, Indian, East and Southeast Asia, and the Americas.

The Getty Villa (Los Angeles, USA)

https://www.getty.edu/art/antiquities/

Antiquities in the collection of the J. Paul Getty museum in Los Angeles, with holdings primarily from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.

Penn Museum (Philadelphia, USA)

https://www.penn.museum/collections

The Penn Museum covers Africa, Americas, Near East, Mediterranean, and Asia from antiquity until today. You can do a keyword search or browse selected highlights, as well as watch video lectures. A notable feature is that you can browse by geographic location.

State Museums of Berlin (Berlin, Germany)

http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&lang=en

~ 250,000 objects in collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (State Museums of Berlin), which includes five separate museums: The Egyptian Museum and Papyrus collection, the "Antikensammlung" (Collection of Classical Antiquities), Museum for Islamic Art, Museum of Prehistory and Early History (mostly of Europe), and the Museum of the Ancient Near East. You can browse highlights or choose to see all objects.

Münzkabinett (Coin Collection) of the State Museums of Berlin

https://ikmk.smb.museum/home?lang=e

An interactive catalogue of the Berlin Museum's collection of coins, one of the largest in the world.

Digital Acropolis Museum (Athens, Greece)

https://theacropolismuseum.gr/en/explore-collections

The Digital Acropolis Museum includes pictures of over 2000 objects in its collection of artifacts from the Acropolis area of Athens, and is in the process of digitizing all of their records and archaeological notebooks (as of Feb 2021).

Online Exhibits

Pompeii in Color: The Life of Roman Painting

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World / National Archaeological Museum of Naples

http://www.pompeiiincolor.com/

Gods in Color: Polychromy in Antiquity (Golden Edition)

The Liebieghaus, Frankfurt, Germany

https://buntegoetter.liebieghaus.de/en/

The Legacy of Palmyra

Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, USA

https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/palmyra/exhibition.html

Exploring Objects, Fears, and the Future

Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley, USA

https://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/exhibit/exploring-objects-fears-future/

Daily Life in an Ancient Judean Town

Bàde Museum of Biblical Archaeology, Berkeley, USA

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0d0e88d8968044128021d71b1ef8e76e

Leisure & Luxury in the Age of Nero

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Ann Arbor, USA

https://exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu/oplontis-leisure-and-luxury/

Virtual Tours

more to be added soon!