Google Art Project Offers Digital Tour of Greek Museums

Google is extending its artwork collection by including, among others, the Museum of Acropolis, the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Benaki Museum, in its Google Art project. This project offers a virtual and online presentation of hundreds of museum exhibits from around the world.

The upgraded edition of Google Art Project now hosts exhibits involving 151 museums from 40 countries. For 46 of the museums, Google is also offering visual tours with the Google Street View technology.

Any Google Art Project visitor will now be able to get a 360 degree tour inside the Museum of Acropolis in Athens from the comfort of their own home. Moreover, online visitors can zoom-in and discover details in the artworks thanks to the 2 Gigapixel-sized pictures.

"They certainly wouldn’t let us get this close inside the galleries," said Google engineer Piotr Adamczyk, who is on the company’s team that developed the project, according to AP.

The president of the Museum of Acropolis, Dimitris Pantermalis, told daily Ta Nea that the museum is looking for as many communication channels with the public as possible. “The three dimensional and ultra-high resolution of the sculptures allows the user to get a full view of the exhibits and study art in a most profound way,” added Pantermalis.

Google Art Project was first launched in February 2011 with 1,000 works of art from 17 museums in 9 countries, including the Tate Gallery of London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, the Uffizi Gallery of Florence and the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam.

The upgraded edition of the Project was officially launched last Tuesday in the Art Institute of Chicago.

The three Greek museums will participate in the Project with 693 exhibits.

Stella Tsolakidou

Source: Greek Reporter


*Thanks Katerina S. for the information!