Metropolitan Museum of Art Offers 400,000 Works Of Art For Free, High-Res Download

"Among a growing number of museums providing free online access to images of art in the public domain, the Metropolitan Museum in New York just made 394,000 images available and the site promptly crashed within hours from the heavy demand. 'Under the Met’s new Open Access for Scholarly Content program, it put high-resolution images of 394,233 pieces of public domain art in its collection online late Monday, including paintings, etchings, sculptures and ancient artifacts -- Rembrandts, Picassos, Van Goghs, ancient European tapestries, Egyptian artefacts and the biblical works of Albrecht Dürer, among them. Through the Open Access program, the spectacular collection of art is available for general viewing and downloading for non-commercial or scholarly use. Other museums like the Getty in Los Angeles have already implemented similar programs, which Met director and CEO Thomas P. Campbell says is part of the future of museums ...'"