All 480,000 or so objects in the collection of the Louvre in Paris have been cataloged online for the first time. For free, you can peruse every last priceless painting, armless statue, and any other work—from the Mona Lisa to some half-forgotten Etruscan oddity—at the museum's new collections website.
The database includes entries for everything that's currently on display, in storage, on loan, or part of other Louvre-administered collections including those of the Tuileries Garden, the Musée National Eugène Delacroix, and the Musées Nationaux Récupération, which is made up of works retrieved after World War II and awaiting return to the families that lost them (or had them stolen).
If all of that feels a little overwhelming, the website helps make the Louvre's vast holdings more manageable by dividing the database up into different departments—paintings, sculptures, textiles, and so on—and themed albums on subjects such as portraiture, historical events, recent acquisitions, and a greatest hits assemblage of 40 well-known masterpieces. (That's where you'll find the Winged Victory of Samothrace, pictured above.)
Click a work's thumbnail image to see photos from several angles along with info on what's known about the artist, medium, date, condition of the piece, and other curatorial notes.
You can even find its location in the museum. An interactive map covers each gallery—including photos of everything on display there—which should assist with plotting future visits to Paris. If tourism numbers ever return to what they once were, travelers inside the Louvre during high season can use all the help they can get.
Along with adding the database of its holdings, the Louvre has upgraded its main website as well. There are now slick virtual tours as well as podcasts, films, kids' programming, and music events designed to let you engage with the art and life of the Louvre even if you can't make it to France for awhile.
Visit Louvre.fr to check out the new website or go to Collections.Louvre.fr to delve into the treasures.
