Met Museum Scraper - Art Collection Data

Scrape the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. Search 470,000+ artworks with images, artist info, dates, and classifications. Free API, no key needed.

Features

• Full-text Search: Search the entire Met collection by keyword
• Department Filter: Filter by 19 museum departments (Egyptian Art, European Paintings, etc.)
• Image Filtering: Only return objects with available images
• Public Domain Filter: Find freely reusable artwork images
• Rich Metadata: Artist info, dates, medium, dimensions, culture, period, geography
• Concurrent Fetching: Fetches 5 objects at a time for speed
• No API Key: Uses the free Met Museum Open Access API

Output Fields

Field	Description
objectID	Met Museum object ID
title	Artwork title
artistDisplayName	Artist name
artistDisplayBio	Artist bio (nationality, dates)
artistNationality	Artist nationality
objectDate	Date or date range string
medium	Materials and techniques
dimensions	Physical dimensions
department	Museum department
culture	Cultural origin
period	Historical period
dynasty	Dynasty (if applicable)
classification	Object classification
primaryImage	Main image URL (high-res)
primaryImageSmall	Thumbnail image URL
additionalImages	Array of additional image URLs
isPublicDomain	Whether image is free to use
accessionNumber	Museum accession number
creditLine	Credit/donor info
country	Country of origin
tags	Array of subject tags
objectURL	Link to Met Museum website
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp

Input Options

• Search Query: Text to search for (e.g. "sunflowers", "van gogh", "Egyptian sculpture")
• Department: Filter by specific museum department
• Has Images Only: Only return objects with images (default: true)
• Public Domain Only: Only return freely reusable images
• Max Results: Limit the number of artworks returned

Departments

American Decorative Arts, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Arms and Armor, Arts of Africa/Oceania/Americas, Asian Art, The Cloisters, The Costume Institute, Drawings and Prints, Egyptian Art, European Paintings, European Sculpture, Greek and Roman Art, Islamic Art, The Robert Lehman Collection, The Libraries, Medieval Art, Musical Instruments, Photographs, Modern and Contemporary Art.

Use Cases

• Art research: Study specific artists, periods, or cultures
• Education: Build art history datasets for teaching
• Creative projects: Find public domain artwork images for designs
• Museum analytics: Analyze the Met's collection by department, period, or culture
• Machine learning: Train image classifiers on labeled artwork data
• Content creation: Source high-quality art images for articles and websites

Example Output

{
  "objectID": 436524,
  "title": "Sunflowers",
  "artistDisplayName": "Vincent van Gogh",
  "artistDisplayBio": "Dutch, Zundert 1853-1890 Auvers-sur-Oise",
  "artistNationality": "Dutch",
  "objectDate": "1887",
  "medium": "Oil on canvas",
  "dimensions": "17 x 24 in. (43.2 x 61 cm)",
  "department": "European Paintings",
  "culture": null,
  "period": null,
  "classification": "Paintings",
  "primaryImage": "https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ep/original/DP229743.jpg",
  "isPublicDomain": true,
  "tags": ["Flowers", "Sunflowers"],
  "objectURL": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436524",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-26T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Data Source

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection API — Open Access to 470,000+ artworks

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