Open Access to the Metropolitan Museum of Art | WIRED UK

"The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made parts of its vast art collection open to the public for the first time.

Thanks to the museum's Open Access Policy, all images of public-domain artwork are now available for free and with unrestricted use on its website. The museum’s policy had previously been to only allow for the non-commercial use of material as part of the 2014 Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC). The updated policy will allow for completely open usage using the Creative Commons Zero designation.

The Met, one of the world's most renowned art museums, has spent more than one hundred years collecting and cultivating artistic works of the greatest cultural relevance. Tapestries from the Yuan dynasty; jasper statues of Egyptian royalty and modern works such as Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers have all found their place within the Met's collections.

The introduction of the Met's Open Access Policy plans to build upon the museum's global cultural significance. The policy releases 375,000 images of public-domain artworks for both scholarly and commercial purposes, making them available for public use across the world."