Getty Museum Open Content Scraper

Scrape the J. Paul Getty Museum's open-access art collection — 160,000+ CC0 artworks spanning antiquities, drawings, manuscripts, paintings, photographs, and sculpture & decorative arts. Search by artist, title, or keyword; browse by curatorial department or classification/object type; or fetch specific artworks by ID or collection URL. Every record includes full curatorial metadata (artist, date, medium, dimensions, provenance, exhibition history) plus a direct high-resolution CC0 image download link. No login, no API key, no paid proxy required.

What this actor does

• Four modes: search (artist/title/keyword), byDepartment (curatorial department), byClassification (object-type taxonomy), byId (direct lookup by object ID or collection URL)
• Combinable filters: department and classification can also be layered on top of a text search to narrow results further
• Full curatorial record: title, artist, nationality & life dates, display date, medium, dimensions, credit line, culture, place created, description, department, classification, exhibition history, provenance (past owners)
• Direct image access: full-resolution image download URL, a 400px-wide thumbnail, and the per-image copyright status
• Empty fields are omitted — every record contains only the data Getty actually published for that artwork

Output per artwork

• objectId, uuid — Getty's public object identifier and internal record ID
• title, alternateTitle, accessionNumber
• artist, artistNationalityAndDates
• displayDate, dateEarliest, dateLatest
• medium, objectType, dimensions
• creditLine, cultureStatement, placeCreated, description
• department — one of Antiquities, Drawings, Manuscripts, Paintings, Photographs, Sculpture and Decorative Arts
• classification, classifications[] — object-type taxonomy term(s)
• exhibitionHistory[] — exhibitions the work has appeared in
• provenance[] — prior owners / collections, in acquisition order
• imageUrl — full-resolution downloadable JPEG
• thumbnailUrl — 400px-wide JPEG
• imageCopyrightStatus — e.g. "No Copyright" (CC0/public domain) for the image itself
• metadataLicense — CC0 1.0 Universal (applies to all cataloging metadata)
• sourceUrl — the artwork's page on getty.edu
• apiUrl — the artwork's canonical Linked Open Data record
• recordType: "artwork", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byDepartment / byClassification / byId
searchQuery	string	Van Gogh	Free-text match against artwork titles and artist names
department	string (enum)	–	Curatorial department; required for byDepartment, optional filter otherwise
classification	string (enum)	–	Object-type taxonomy term; required for byClassification, optional filter otherwise
objectIds	array	–	Object slugs, UUIDs, or full collection URLs (mode=byId)
requireImage	boolean	false	Only emit artworks that have a downloadable image
maxItems	integer	20	Hard cap on emitted records (1–300)

Example: search with a department filter

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "portrait",
  "department": "paintings",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: browse a classification

{
  "mode": "byClassification",
  "classification": "sculpture",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: fetch specific artworks

{
  "mode": "byId",
  "objectIds": [
    "103QZ9",
    "https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RDF"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Digital humanities / art history research — bulk-export curatorial metadata and provenance for a department, artist, or period
• CC0 image sourcing — pull direct high-resolution download links for editorial, educational, or generative-AI training use
• Museum data aggregation — combine with other open-collection sources (Smithsonian, Rijksmuseum, Met) into a unified art dataset
• Provenance / collecting-history research — trace an artwork's chain of ownership across auctions and collections
• Exhibition history tracking — see which shows a given work has traveled to

Data source / limitations

This actor uses Getty's public Museum Collection Linked Open Data API (data.getty.edu/museum/collection, a Linked.Art / CIDOC-CRM model) together with its public SPARQL endpoint for search and browse queries, and the server-rendered getty.edu/art/collection/object/{id} page for resolving a public object ID to its underlying record. No authentication, API key, or paid proxy is required for any mode.

• Metadata license: CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication) — reflected in every record's metadataLicense field.
• Image rights vary per artwork. Getty publishes a per-image imageCopyrightStatus (most are "No Copyright" / public domain under Getty's Open Content Program, but a minority carry third-party restrictions) — always check this field before reusing an image commercially.
• "Medium" is not a fully enumerable facet. Unlike department and classification, Getty does not publish a small fixed list of material/medium values across the whole collection, so medium is returned as free text per object rather than offered as a filter dropdown.
• Written descriptions and artist biographies may include third-party copyrighted text (per Getty's own usage guidelines); Getty does not authorize redistribution of that subset. See the object's sourceUrl for the original context.

FAQ

Is this the same as Getty's public website search? It queries the same underlying dataset that powers getty.edu/art/collection, using Getty's own public Linked Open Data API rather than scraping rendered web pages.

Do I need a Getty API key? No. The Museum Collection API and its SPARQL endpoint are fully public and keyless.

Can I filter by more than one thing at once? Yes — department and classification can both be combined with searchQuery in search mode, or with each other, to narrow results.

What departments are available? Antiquities, Drawings, Manuscripts, Paintings, Photographs, and Sculpture and Decorative Arts — the Getty Museum's six curatorial departments.

Why do some artworks have artist: "Unknown"? That reflects Getty's own cataloging — many historical photographs and works have no attributable maker on record.

Can I use the images commercially? Check imageCopyrightStatus on each record. Most Getty Museum images are released under its Open Content Program (no restrictions), but always verify per artwork before commercial use.

How current is the data? The API reflects Getty's live collection database — the same source that powers their public website.