Best websites for browsing the world’s museums
The top websites here are for the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the Smithsonian.
Louvre.fr links to what’s arguably “the greatest museum in the world,” the Paris institution that displays more than 35,000 artworks, including da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The “virtual visit” lets you amble through the Louvre’s “exquisitely adorned corridors” without booking a trans-Atlantic flight.

Hermitagemuseum.org houses the online version of the St. Petersburg, Russia, collection. Founded by Catherine the Great, the Hermitage includes nearly “3 million artifacts from all over the world,” and its site offers a multimedia tutorial in art history.


Si.edu, gateway to the Smithsonian Institution’s 19 museums, links to virtual versions of a significant portion of the “staggering” 136 million items in the collection, including those at the Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Air and Space Museum.
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Source: London Times
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