Image and Data Resources

The Metropolitan Museum of Art creates, organizes, and disseminates a broad range of digital images and data that document the rich history of the Museum, its collection, exhibitions, events, people, and activities.

2D and 3D images of artworks in the Museum's collection fall into two categories:

1. images of works the Museum believes to be in the public domain, or those to which the Museum waives any copyright it might have
2. images of works the Museum knows to be under copyright or other restrictions

On February 7, 2017, The Metropolitan Museum of Art implemented a new policy known as Open Access, which makes images of artworks it believes to be in the public domain widely and freely available for unrestricted use, and at no cost, in accordance with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation and the Terms and Conditions of this website.

It also makes available data from the entire online collection―both works it believes to be in the public domain and those under copyright or other restrictions―including basic information such as title, artist, date, medium, and dimensions. This data is available to all in accordance with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation.

Watch the press conference held on February 7, 2017, to announce the new Open Access policy on The Met Museum YouTube channel.

The Museum dedicates select data of artworks in its collection―both works it believes to be in the public domain and those under copyright or other restrictions―to the public domain. You can download, share, modify, and distribute the data for any purpose, including commercial and noncommercial use, free of charge and without requiring permission from the Museum.

The completeness of each object record differs, as cataloguing is ongoing. Digital images are not included in the dataset.

The data is available as a Comma Separated Value (.CSV) file on GitHub, a web-based data repository and Internet hosting service. It is updated on a weekly basis.

Explore more than 406,000 hi-res images of public-domain works from the The Met collection, all of which can be downloaded, shared, and remixed without restriction.

To identify these images, look for the Open Access icon, at the lower left of the image:

We've created 20 thematic sets of images to get you started: Masterpiece Paintings, Cats, Met-staches, New York City, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Winter Wonderland, Vincent van Gogh, The Pre-Raphaelite Style, Self-Portraits, Quilts, Gold, Georges Seurat, Arms and Armor, The Monuments Men at The Met, Faces from the Ancient World, Tiffany Glass, Dress to Impress, Art or Design?, and Dishes.

If an image for an artwork accompanied by the OA icon is unavailable on our website, please refer to the instructions for requesting new images below.

To request images for artworks under copyright or other restrictions, or to request an image not available on our website, please use the following form to contact the Museum's image-licensing partner, Art Resource.

Image Request Form

Art Resource acts as the Museum's primary partner for the worldwide fulfillment of licensing requests. As the Museum's agent, Art Resource will provide (when possible) digital images made by Museum staff. A fee will be charged depending on the nature and type of the proposed use and the availability of photography of the images requested.

All requests for new photography are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Upon approval, additional fees may apply. New photography will require a minimum of six weeks. Please note that the Museum reserves the right to deny any request at its sole discretion.

Instructions are included on the form, which goes directly to Art Resource once submitted. The following is the contact information for Art Resource:

Art Resource, Inc.
65 Bleecker Street, 12th floor
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212-505-8700
Fax: 212-505-2053
Email: requests@artres.com