Image and Data Resources

Open Access Policy

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.

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 MetMedia.

Images of Artworks in the Public Domain

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, Monsters and Mythological Creatures, 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.

Images of Artworks Under Copyright or Other Restrictions, or Unavailable Images

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: [email protected]

Images for Educational and Research Uses

Digital images of selected works of art from the Museum’s collection may be licensed by educational institutions for study and presentation purposes from Scholars Resource. These images may be used for educational purposes only and may not be published or reproduced.

Scholars Resource, Inc.
65 Summer Place
Portland, ME 04103
Phone: 207-221-6277
Fax: 207-221-5695
Email: [email protected]

Collection Data

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.

Open Access Partners

Creative Commons

The Museum is pleased to launch its Open Access policy in partnership with Creative Commons, an international leader in open access and copyright. Creative Commons provides free copyright licenses to facilitate and standardize the sharing of creative work.

Distribution Partners

The images of artworks the Museum believes to be in the public domain, those to which it waives any copyright it might have, and our select collection data are also available on the websites of our distribution partners, including ITHAKA-Artstor and its companion service, Shared Shelf Commons; the Digital Public Library of America; Google Cultural Institute; Pinterest; and the Wikimedia communities. Learn more about The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s GLAM-Wiki Projects on Wikipedia.

Contact Information

For questions about images of artworks identified by the OA icon, or about the Museum’s public-domain collection data, please contact [email protected].

For all other questions about rights and permissions, please contact:

Digital Department – Rights and Permissions
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Phone: 212-650-2368
Fax: 212-396-5050
Email: [email protected]