Take a peek at some of the Met's open access art - New York Business Journal

"Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art has made all public domain works in its collection available online thanks to several partnerships with Creative Commons, Wikimedia, Artstor, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), Art Resource and social network Pinterest.

The new policy, known as Open Access, makes images of artworks it believes to be in the public domain widely and freely available for unrestricted use — and at no cost.

At first glance, the move seems like yet another 'go-digital' campaign to appease mobile users.

However, the Met’s announcement is unique because it's an effort to extend the museum’s reach beyond the constraints of a physical footprint.

'Our core mission is to be open and accessible for all who wish to study and enjoy the works of art in our care,' said Met director Thomas Campbell in a prepared statement ( h/t ArtNet). 'Increasing access to the museum’s collection and scholarship serves the interests and needs of our 21st-century audiences by offering new resources for creativity, knowledge, and ideas.'

The initial roll-out features a total of 375,000 images of the 200,000 works.

Up to 1 million public domain works — prints, engravings, posters, post cards and other ephemera — will be digitized as well. We've included 10 images for our readers to peruse in the slideshow above."