World's most prestigious art collections now available to view online in high definition

Google has launched a virtual tour of 17 of the world’s best art museums, including The Palace of Versailles, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and The Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The scheme allows users to take a virtual trip around the museum from the comfort of their own homes, with the added ability to zoom in on over 1,000 intricate artworks chosen specifically by the museum experts.

Captured in incredible detail using ‘gigapixel’ photo-capturing technology, the online catalogue allows users to view the artworks closer than ever before. Each museum has presented one artwork in exquisite detail, as can be viewed from the video below. The Museum of Modern Art has chosen Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, The Freer Gallery of Art has opted for The Princess from the Land of Porcelain by James McNeill Whistler and The State Tretyakov Gallery has selected Aleksander Ivanov’s The Apparition of Christ to the People (The Apparition of the Messiah).

Museums participating in the scheme are:

Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Washington
The Frick Collection, New York
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid
Museo Thyssen – Bornemisza, Madrid
Museum Kampa, Prague
National Gallery, London
Palace of Versailles, France
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Tate Britain, London
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam