Metropolitan Museum provides free access to its archives

The Metropolitan Museum’s initiative, called Open Access for Scholarly Content, provides access to more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images on its website.

According to Thomas Campbell, director and CEO of the museum, the images may now be downloaded free of charge for non-commercial use, including scientific publications in media-resources. Mr. Campbell expressed his delight that through this new initiative they join the growing number of other museums with open-access policy.

Note: The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest art museums in the world which is second only to Louvre by the amount of its visitors. It was founded in 1870 by a group of American businessmen and art collectors. Today the museum is supported by mostly private donations and some government funding.