Met Museum's Digital Spring

The Met's Open Access Initiative is expanding, now offering high-definition 3D scans of nearly 140 objects from its 1.5 million-object collection. This allows anyone to examine details like brushstrokes on Van Gogh's "Wheat Field with Cypresses" from angles impossible in person. The scans reveal textures and structural details often missed in photographs, and sometimes even invisible to the naked eye. The collection spans millennia, from Babylonian tablets to 18th-century Turkish tiles. Nine of the scans were created with exceptional color accuracy in collaboration with NHK, Japan's national broadcaster. The Met describes these as research-grade tools. Many of the 3D models are available for free download under The Met's Open Access program and CC0 license. You can even explore the models in augmented reality (AR) on smartphones and VR headsets.