Museums

Take a Virtual Tour of These Renowned Museums

By Sotheby's

D uring uncertain times, there are some things – like art – that provide beauty, entertainment, inspiration and most importantly, hope. For now, as most of us stay safely quarantined at home, museums across continents are quickly pivoting to adapt to the present moment by opening their digital doors and inviting the world to continue exploring their extraordinary collections.

Here, we’ve compiled a selection of virtual tours from some of our favorite museums. Start your day with a quick trip to the Sistine Chapel, before breezing over the Atlantic for your one-on-one tour of the Frick Collection’s prized period rooms – all from the comfort of your home.

Interior View, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art


To explore the "Gerhard Richter: Painting After All" exhibition: click here. Here you will find images of the exhibition, a list of objects and primer with history, background and videos.

Learn about the new British Galleries at the Met through an exhibition overview, exhibition guide, audio guide and primer. Hear curators, conservators and contemporary artists uncover the surprising stories and politics behind British art, craftsmanship and consumerism – then and now: click here.

The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History pairs essays and works of art with chronologies, telling the story of art and global culture through the museum’s collection: click here.

To view the Met's complete collection: click here.

To watch a tour of the Met Cloisters: click here.

Image courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art


The Museum of Modern Art boasts a collection of almost 200,000 Modern and Contemporary artworks. The museum has made 84,000 of them accessible online. Highlights include pieces by Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. To scroll MoMA's collection: click here.

Image Courtesy of the Frick Collection

The Frick Collection


The period rooms at the Frick are sights to behold. Here, one can spend hours getting lost in each room – perhaps discovering masterpieces by artists like Holbein, El Greco, Titian or Bellini. To watch a virtual tour of the Frick's collection: click here.

Image courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art

Whitney Museum of American Art

Enjoy online content featured on the Whitney's YouTube channel, which includes talks and interviews with artists and Whitney curators. To highlight a few, a great interview with Liza Lou about her current piece Kitchen in our "Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019" exhibition as well as the 2019 Walter Annenberg Lecture with Jason Moran: click here.

Learn about current shows from home with the Whitney's audio guides, which includes current and past exhibitions as well as the recently opened "Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist" and "Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945": click here.

Explore the Whitney's collection online which includes over 25,000 works from over 3,500 artists: click here.

Image courtesy of the Neue Galerie

Neue Galerie

The intimate New York museum known for holding Gustav Klimt's celebrated painting The Woman in Gold is currently closed; however, its most recent exhibition, highlighting the esteemed Austrian photographer, Dora Kallmus, is online. To uncover the exhibition "Madame d'Ora": click here.

To listen to the museum's audio guides: click here.

Hear from curators through interviews at the Neue Galerie: click here.

Image Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

At the Art Institute of Chicago, the blockbuster show "El Greco: Ambition and Defiance", which features over 57 El Greco artworks, can now be found online. Peel back the layers of The Assumption of the Virgin, the centerpiece of the exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago: click here.

Image courtesy of the Guggenheim Museum

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim's online portal showcases over 1,700 works by more than 125 artists. Additionally, the database does not exclusively feature art from the New York outpost; one can search through both the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, as well. To discover the museum's complete collection: click here.

Hear Guggenheim Staff and 99% Invisible's Roman Mars on the Guggenheim's architecture: click here.

To undergo a virtual tour of the historic museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: click here.

Image courtesy of the Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum's collection, housed in the Warburg Mansion, is available online via audio tours and online highlights. The audio experience includes the series "Artists' Voices," which features prominent art world figures, an example being Kehinde Wiley, discussing their favorite works. To tour the museum: click here.

To visit the permanent collection exhibition "Hanukkah Lamps": click here.

Image courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

Museum of the City of New York

The boulevards of New York may be empty, but one can still experience the city's famed grid structure. To traverse the streets of NYC digitally, interact with the exhibition and "The Greatest Grid": click here.

To explore the museum's other exhibitions: click here.

Image courtesy of the Jewish Museum Vienna

Jewish Museum Vienna

The Jewish Museum Vienna's vast holdings are available online. Preview the exhibition "Our City! Jewish Vienna – Then to Now" to learn about the institution's history, or click through their exhibit "The Visible Storage" to uncover unexpected treasures. Walk through the museum's permanent collection: click here.

Image courtesy of the Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi has created an online gallery, where one can visit a trove of exhibitions. Here, you can find "Factories of Stories," which is an audio series that provides stories on twelve of the museum's greatest masterpieces. Each audio track features a different narrator, and the result is resoundingly personal. To uncover the museum's exhibitions: click here.

Image courtesy of the Musei Vaticani

Musei Vaticani

The Musei Vaticani's online experience highlights the many museums of the Vatican, which can be exemplified by 360 virtual tours of the Sistine Chapel and the Chiaramonti Museum. To learn more about the Musei's collection: click here.

Image courtesy of the Museo del Prado

Museo del Prado

The Museo del Prado has digitized its vast collection highlights, which is an impressive feat considering the museum houses the largest holdings of Bosch, Titian, El Greco, Rubens, Velázquez and Goya. To view the museum's complete collection: click here.

Image courtesy of the Louvre

The Louvre

The Louvre's online portal features a wealth of virtual tours. Here, virtually discover the exhibition "The Advent of the Artist" with works by Delacroix, Rembrandt and Tintoretto. Afterwards, visit the "Egyptian Antiquities" wing or "Galerie d'Apollon," which displays a mural homage to the Sung King, Louis XIV. To tour the museum's permanent collections: click here.

Image courtesy of the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is known to contain the famous Lewis Chessmen or masterworks by Raphael. It is also important to note that the museum hosts a podcast; each episode informatively describes the museum's holdings in a new light. To listen to the British Museum's informative podcasts: click here. And to peruse the museum's collection: click here.

Victoria and Albert Museum

The V&A's collection covers a diversity categories, such as photography, architecture, costumes, wallpaper and paintings. To explore a wide array of the museum's collections: click here.

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