# Met Museum Scraper — Artworks, Artists & Images (`hipersoft/met-museum-scraper`) Actor

Search The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection and export artwork data: title, artist, date, medium, department, culture, classification, public-domain status and image URLs. One clean row per artwork as JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hipersoft/met-museum-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [hiper soft](https://apify.com/hipersoft) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.00075 / artwork scraped

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Met Museum Scraper — Artworks, Artists & Images

Search **The Metropolitan Museum of Art** collection — one of the largest and most-visited museums in the world — and export artwork data as clean, structured rows. Get title, artist, date, medium, department, culture, classification, public-domain status and image URLs for each piece. Export to **JSON, CSV or Excel**, or pull straight from the API.

Perfect for **art research and education, digital collections, design and moodboards, computer-vision datasets, and sourcing public-domain art** with rights info attached.

***

### What you get

One flat, ready-to-use record per artwork:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `id` / `objectUrl` | Object ID and museum page |
| `title` | Artwork title |
| `artist` / `artistBio` | Artist name and biography |
| `objectName` | Object type (painting, vase, armor…) |
| `date` | Creation date |
| `medium` / `dimensions` | Materials and size |
| `classification` / `department` | Type and museum department |
| `culture` / `period` | Cultural context |
| `isPublicDomain` / `isHighlight` | Rights and highlight status |
| `primaryImage` / `primaryImageSmall` | Image URLs |
| `additionalImageCount` | Number of extra images |
| `tags` | Subject tags |
| `creditLine` / `accessionNumber` / `accessionYear` | Provenance |
| `query` | The keyword that produced the row |
| `collectedAt` | When the row was scraped |

***

### How to use

```json
{
  "searchQueries": ["vermeer", "egyptian"],
  "hasImages": true,
  "publicDomainOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

- **Search keywords** — search by artist, title, culture or subject.
- **Only items with images** — restrict to artworks that have an image.
- **Public-domain only** — keep only freely-reusable works.
- **Max artworks** — cap the total (0 = no limit). Each artwork is fetched individually, so large runs take longer.

***

### Example output

```json
{
  "id": 436535,
  "title": "Wheat Field with Cypresses",
  "artist": "Vincent van Gogh",
  "date": "1889",
  "department": "European Paintings",
  "culture": null,
  "isPublicDomain": true,
  "primaryImage": "https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ep/original/….jpg",
  "objectUrl": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535",
  "collectedAt": "2026-09-20T18:00:00.000Z"
}
```

***

### Common use cases

- **Art research & education** — build study sets, reading lists and reference sheets.
- **Digital collections** — index parts of the collection with images and metadata.
- **Design & moodboards** — source artwork and imagery by theme, culture or artist.
- **Computer-vision datasets** — assemble labelled art image sets (public-domain).
- **Rights-aware reuse** — filter to public-domain works with images and credit lines.

***

### Frequently asked questions

**Do I need any login, account or key?** No. Just add keywords and run.

**Can I get the images?** Yes — each row includes `primaryImage` (and a small version).

**Can I get only reusable art?** Yes — enable **Public-domain only**.

**Why do large runs take a while?** Each artwork's full record is fetched individually — set a sensible **Max artworks**.

**What format is the data?** A flat table you can export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or fetch from the Apify API.

***

### Related scrapers

Building a culture toolkit? Pair this with our Art Institute of Chicago scraper and other content scrapers on Apify Store — all with the same clean, one-row-per-item output.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Search The Met collection by keyword — artist, title, culture or subject, e.g. 'vermeer', 'egyptian', 'armor'. Each keyword runs its own search.

## `hasImages` (type: `boolean`):

Restrict results to artworks that have an image.

## `publicDomainOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only return artworks in the public domain (freely reusable images).

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of artworks to collect across all keywords (0 = no limit). Note: each artwork is fetched individually, so large runs take longer.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "vermeer"
  ],
  "hasImages": true,
  "publicDomainOnly": false,
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

The results as dataset items.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "vermeer"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hipersoft/met-museum-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searchQueries": ["vermeer"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hipersoft/met-museum-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "vermeer"
  ]
}' |
apify call hipersoft/met-museum-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hipersoft/met-museum-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/oF2bSq3MQIDEWFWb2/builds/CteRtuuFhRMc4cvwr/openapi.json