World famous galleries and museums you can explore online

Many of the world-leading museums and galleries already had websites, but since COVID-19 has shut most of them down, they have gone that extra mile, developing cutting edge virtual tours that showcase famous artworks and exhibits. Be delighted by in-depth tours and thousands of pages of images and information, whetting your appetite for when we can again travel and see the real thing. If you have the equipment, how about projecting them on to a big screen to view with the family? That way you can create a truly immersive experience and pick up tips when planning for your next trip after lockdown.

The British Museum, London

Wander around the largest covered square in Europe, explore the home of a widespread collection of world art and immerse yourself in two million years of human history and culture. This museum is now only a click away, bringing its galleries and exhibitions to you. Boasting multiple online exhibitions and 7281 images on display, highlights include the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, and Egyptian mummies. Or you can install the Google Arts & Culture App to explore virtual reality tours. Begin your online visit here.

State Hermitage Museum, Russia

Walk through this incredible St Petersburg museum with a video shot in one-take. It is so immersive, you'll feel like you are walking through it yourself! There are 45 galleries and 588 masterpieces for you to explore, plus a collection of live performances scattered throughout your journey. The visual effect and composition of the tour is so striking, this is a great one to get up on a big screen. Watch it here. Visit their online museum here.

The Met Museum, New York

With a collection representing more than 5000 years of art from across the globe, it’s time to venture through the Great Hall, the Temple of Dendur, the Met Cloisters, the Met Breuer and many more of their rooms, using their spherical 360-degree technology. They have strung cables, removed protective covers from works of art, and rigged cameras up high, all to allow you to explore The Met's iconic spaces as never before! Visit The Met here.

Dali Theatre-Museum, Spain

Built upon the ruins of a 19th Century construction destroyed at the end of the Spanish Civil War, Dali’s Theatre-Museum is the largest surrealistic structure in the world and it's now available for you to visit via a virtual tour. View one (or all three!) of their exhibitions featuring Salvador Dali's artwork: Apprentice Painter, Robert Whitaker 1967-1972 or the Women photograph Dali. Additionally, you even have access to a selection of the most representative audiovisual documents created by the artist in the museum's new Dali Film Library. View the works and objects exhibited in this museum here.

The Louvre, Paris

Your dreams of vacating to France have come true as this iconic gallery is gifting you a slice of Paris! Whether you fancy viewing the Egyptian Antiquities, the remains of the Louvre’s moat, or the Galerie d'Apollon, this online learning experience captures diverse cultures. You can also discover artworks from Delacroix, Rembrandt or Tintoretto in its current exhibition The Advent of the Artist being held in the Louvre's Petite Galerie. Check it out here.

The São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), Brazil

At this architectural landmark designed by Lina Bo Bardo, the artworks are suspended, giving the breathtaking appearance that they are floating in mid-air. Be in awe at the sight of this, all the while viewing the most important collection of European art in the southern hemisphere. MASP'S holdings currently consist of 11 thousand artworks from various periods in time and from various locations all over the world. See it for yourself on the Google Arts & Culture App here.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Journey up the spiralling ramp of this iconic corkscrew-designed museum and view its expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art. Or perhaps you wish to explore some of the radical changes transforming the globe in an exhibition titled Countryside, The Future led by architects Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal. Tour the building, listen to audio guides and discover the seminal artworks from the Solomon R. Guggenheim collection here, or alternatively, you can take a virtual tour here.

The Vatican Museum

Italy may be in lockdown, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still pay some of its monumental landmarks a visit. As a dynamic museum where tradition and innovation find a perfect synthesis, you can discover Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Christian and epigraphic paintings dated from the reign of Pope Julius II right up to contemporary art. Through the museum's 360-degree virtual tours, they also present the incredible opportunity of visiting St Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, or the "Rooms" of Raphael and Michelangelo, right from your very own home. Begin your adventure here.

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

This building, originally constructed to house the administrative and judicial offices of the Medici family, today contains work by Renaissance Old Masters such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Botticelli and Titian. Famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings, the Gallery also boasts an invaluable collection of statues and busts from the Medici family themselves. Skip the lines and avoid the crowds that you'd normally find here by exploring its art collection online.

National Gallery of Art, USA

This gallery is bringing its Degas at the Opéra and Raphael and His Circle exhibitions to you through their online exhibition tours! Prepare yourself for an in-depth look at the highlights of the collections with access to online learning resources, audio and video recordings provided by artists and curators. Or check out the rest of the evolving collection containing almost 160,000 works of arts all available online. You can visit it here.