The Louvre announced at a press conference on March 26 that they will be exhibiting over 400,000 works online. The very concept of digitized collections bridges new and old methods of gallery-viewing.
The Apollon Gallery at the Louvre museum in Paris on Jan. 14, 2020.
Stephanie de Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images
"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."
- Jean Luc Martinez, President-Director of the Musée du Louvre
Over the past year, the world has vastly altered the price of leisure. Simply no longer a financial expenditure, travel and tourism have become health hazards to millions of individuals worldwide. When once a tourist could traverse a museum without concern, current safety measures have made gallery-viewing and maintenance a more challenging experience.
Attendance has dropped, galleries operate on reduced hours, and dozens of works return to the storeroom. Yet, art demands to be seen. Curators at the Musée du Louvre developed a solution for enthusiasts to view the world's most famous works with a simple click of a button. Digitizing hundreds of thousands of works for free has changed the very landscape of art-- or at least taken a step into a new direction. Accessible art has slowly seeped into the mainstream art world, ranging from exposure on social media platforms to digital portfolios and personal websites. Abandoning the classical Academy austerity of fine art is a goal for many artists; pieces shut away in a private gallery with an exorbitant price tag is an undesirable fate for most. Grounding the meaning of work and reclaiming, in part, public appreciation for art remains an important component of artistic value. What is art if not seen?
Musée du Louvre
Though several archives like those of The Library of Congress and The MET have released collections online, the Louvre brings a significant portion of primarily classical antique art into the public eye without constraints. With the world's most famous museum displaying artefacts in a digitized collection, other museums may produce a profound wave of accessible galleries in the coming months. With the surmounting need for museums to maintain traffic, online exhibits could be a viable solution. Not only would this benefit museums in terms of viewership, but online galleries can grant researchers and students access to primary resources across centuries of art history. Expanding the uses and opportunities of digitized works not only extends the lifetime of pieces but solidifies their legacies through generational observation.
The Internet has now become the people's museum, and it will only continue to evolve.
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