Stuck at home due to coronavirus? Why not visit a virtual museum

With the coronavirus pandemic keeping millions indoors, many art institutions and museums around the world are offering access to their galleries online.

Google’s Arts and Culture platform (also available as an app) has compiled exhibits from more than a thousand leading museums and archives that can be viewed online and toured virtually.

We take a look at a few treasures that can make being stuck at home a less unpleasant experience.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York offers displays more than 84,000 works online from their 200,000 strong collection. Focusing on modern works made in the 20th century, the museum is a cultural institution in New York and a must-see destination for many travelers. You can also take a look at the Sophie Tauber-Arp exhibition via Google Arts and Culture.

Other museums in New York City include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which presents art created over 5,000 years, and has 26 stories online, from painters Johannes Vermeer to Pieter Bruegel the Elder to fashion designers Coco Chanel to Elsa Schiaperelli.

Another New York institution is the Guggenheim, housed in a famed Frank Lloyd Wright building and offering modern and contemporary artworks. It also has many artworks online, included in five stories, such as Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, and The Little Known Glass Works of Josef Albers.

In France, the Louvre offers its own virtual tours, notably the Egyptian Antiquities section as well as the Galerie d’Apollon. While it’s not the same as touring the grand museum in Paris, in the time of Covid-19, it’s the best approximation there is.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam offers two stories online, about the books the painter read, and his mostly unfortunate love life, coupling informative text with some of his paintings.

Located in the outskirts of Mexico City, the Dolores Olmedo Museum boasts paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. It offers 14 stories online.

The British Museum’s collection is described as spanning “over two million years of human history and culture.” The extensive online collection of 45 stories ranges from Footwear from the Islamic World to Guatemalan Masks, from Ancient Mayans to the Pacific god a’a.

There is also Italy’s Uffizi Gallery in Florence which can be explored through its website. The gallery brings together “collections of art, precious artisan-made objects, books, and plants belonging to the Medici, Habsburg-Lorraine and Savoy families” and is called “a stunning collection of treasures dating from Antiquity to the 20th century.”

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC offers virtual tours on its website of mummies, skeletons and much more for families with young kids.

The famed photography collections of Getty Images are also partially offered online, featuring four exhibits.

In Istanbul, the Pera Museum, a private museum founded by the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, offers virtual exhibitions through its collaboration with Google. There are seven exhibitions online, including Istanbul: City of Dreams and Portraits from the Empire.

Another museum in Turkey, Istanbul Modern, is offering a virtual tour of their exhibition, Artists in their Time, with 193 works by 109 artists. All museums are closed to the public for at least two weeks or until further notice.