# Museum Art Collections: Met, Art Institute Chicago & Cleveland (`pankajbhatia/museum-art-collections`) Actor

Search 1 million+ artworks at The Met, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art: title, artist, date, medium, dimensions, department, public domain flag and high-resolution image links. Open access (CC0) data.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/museum-art-collections.md
- **Developed by:** [Pankaj Bhatia](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Other
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 artworks

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## Museum Art Collections: Met, Art Institute Chicago & Cleveland

Search **more than a million artworks** at three of the largest open access museum collections: **The Metropolitan Museum of Art** (New York), the **Art Institute of Chicago** and the **Cleveland Museum of Art**. One search covers all three. Each row has the **title**, **artist** and artist details, **date** (with start and end years), **medium**, **dimensions**, **department**, classification, culture or place of origin, accession number, a **public domain flag** and **high-resolution image** and thumbnail links, plus the museum's object page. No login or API key is needed.

### Who is it for?

- **Designers, publishers and print-on-demand sellers** looking for public domain artwork images.
- **AI and dataset builders** who need image-and-caption pairs with clear open licensing.
- **Teachers, students and art historians** gathering works by artist, period or subject.
- **App and website developers** building art galleries, quizzes or wallpapers.

### How to use it

1. Enter **search terms** such as an artist, subject, style or culture (the default is sunflowers).
2. Choose the **museums** (all three by default).
3. Keep **Only artworks with images** on, and turn on **Only public domain** if you need images you can reuse freely.
4. Set **Max results per term and museum** and click **Start**.

### Input example

```json
{"searchTerms": ["Monet", "samurai armor", "Egyptian cat"], "museums": ["met", "aic", "cleveland"], "publicDomainOnly": true, "maxResultsPerSearch": 50}
```

### Output example

```json
{"museum": "The Metropolitan Museum of Art", "objectId": "436524", "title": "Sunflowers", "artist": "Vincent van Gogh", "date": "1887", "medium": "Oil on canvas", "dimensions": "17 x 24 in. (43.2 x 61 cm)", "department": "European Paintings", "isPublicDomain": true, "imageUrl": "https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ep/original/DP-41223-001.jpg", "url": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436524"}
```

### How much does it cost?

Pay-per-event: a small fee **per artwork** returned, plus a tiny per-run start fee. There is no subscription and no separate platform usage cost. For example, 1,000 artworks cost about $0.50. Searches with no matches and error rows are **not charged**. Use **Max results per term and museum** or **Maximum cost per run** to cap your spending.

### Use it through the API, integrations or AI agents

Run it from the Apify API, on a schedule, or connect it to Make, Zapier, n8n or Google Sheets. AI agents can find and call it through the Apify MCP server. Output is clean JSON with the same fields on every run.

### FAQ

**Is it legal?** Yes. All three museums publish their collection data through official open access APIs, and the data is released under CC0. Images marked public domain (`isPublicDomain: true`) can be reused freely. Other images may still be under copyright, so check the museum page before you reuse them. This tool is not affiliated with any of the museums.

**Why do results differ between museums?** Each museum runs its own search engine and catalogs works in its own way, so the same term can match different numbers of works.

**Can I download the images?** The tool returns direct image links. Download only the images you are allowed to use.

**Does it include donor names?** No. Credit lines are left out.

### More tools from this developer

- [SAM.gov Contract Opportunities Finder & Bid Alerts](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/sam-gov-contract-opportunities): federal contract opportunities and bid alerts
- [Sitemap & URL Extractor](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/sitemap-url-extractor): get every URL of a website from its sitemaps
- [Website to Markdown for AI & RAG](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/website-to-markdown): turn web pages into clean Markdown for LLMs
- [Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/tech-stack-detector): find what any website is built with
- [Apple App Store Reviews Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/app-store-reviews): App Store reviews and ratings for any app
- [ATS Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/ats-jobs-scraper): jobs from Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable and more
- [Website Screenshot](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/website-screenshot): full-page, mobile and PDF screenshots in bulk
- [PDF to Text & Markdown Extractor](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/pdf-text-extractor): extract text from PDFs for AI and search
- [Domain WHOIS, DNS & SSL Checker](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/domain-whois-dns-ssl-checker): bulk domain, DNS, email security and SSL checks
- [SEO Meta Tags & On-Page Audit](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/seo-meta-tags-checker): bulk on-page SEO audit with fixes
- [Bulk URL Status & Broken Link Checker](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/url-status-broken-link-checker): status codes, redirect chains and broken links
- [RSS & Atom Feed Reader](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/rss-feed-reader): merge and filter many news feeds
- [Hacker News Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/hacker-news-scraper): HN stories, comments and Who is hiring jobs
- [Academic Paper Search](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/academic-paper-search): papers from Crossref, arXiv and PubMed
- [SEC EDGAR Filings & Financials](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/sec-edgar-filings-financials): 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K filings and company financials
- [Apple Podcasts Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/apple-podcasts-scraper): podcast details and full episode lists
- [App Store Top Charts & App Search](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/app-store-top-charts): top free, paid and grossing app rankings
- [ClinicalTrials.gov Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/clinicaltrials-gov-scraper): search and export clinical trials
- [USAspending Federal Awards](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/usaspending-federal-awards): who won federal contracts and grants
- [Grants.gov Opportunities](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/grants-gov-opportunities): open and forecasted federal grants
- [Weather Forecast & Alerts](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/weather-forecast-alerts): 9-day forecasts for any city, plus U.S. alerts
- [EU TED Tenders Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/ted-eu-tenders-scraper): European public procurement notices
- [Bulk Domain Availability Checker](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/bulk-domain-availability-checker): check which domains are free to register
- [Product Recalls Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/product-recalls-fda-cpsc-nhtsa): FDA, CPSC and NHTSA vehicle recalls
- [Federal Register Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/federal-register-documents): U.S. rules, notices and comment deadlines
- [npm & PyPI Package Stats](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/npm-pypi-package-stats): downloads, versions and licenses for packages
- [Open Library Books Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/open-library-books-scraper): book search and ISBN lookup
- [UK Contracts Finder Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/uk-contracts-finder-scraper): UK public tenders and contract awards
- [Wikipedia Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/wikipedia-scraper): articles, full text and page views
- [Currency Exchange Rates (ECB)](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/currency-exchange-rates-ecb): official latest and historical FX rates
- [Barcode Product Lookup](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/barcode-product-lookup): EAN/UPC barcodes to product and nutrition data
- [Global Company Registry Search (LEI)](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/gleif-lei-company-search): official company records and parents
- [VIN Decoder (NHTSA)](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/vin-decoder-nhtsa): bulk vehicle specs from VINs
- [PubMed Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/pubmed-scraper): biomedical articles and abstracts
- [US Address Geocoder (Census)](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-census-address-geocoder): lat/long, county and tract for U.S. addresses
- [Remote Jobs Aggregator](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/remote-jobs-aggregator): remote jobs from Remote OK, Jobicy and Arbeitnow
- [Hugging Face Hub Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/hugging-face-hub-scraper): AI models, datasets and Spaces
- [World Bank Indicators](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/world-bank-indicators): GDP, population and 1,400+ indicators
- [TV Shows & Episodes Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/tv-shows-episodes-scraper): TV shows, episodes, cast and schedules
- [WordPress Plugins & Themes Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/wordpress-plugins-themes-scraper): plugin and theme installs and ratings
- [US Nonprofit Search (IRS)](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-nonprofit-search-irs): tax-exempt organizations with size and category
- [Music Metadata Scraper (MusicBrainz)](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/musicbrainz-music-metadata): artists, albums, tracks and ISRCs
- [Package Stats: crates.io, RubyGems, Packagist & NuGet](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/package-registry-stats): Rust, Ruby, PHP and .NET package stats
- [FDA Drug Labels & NDC Scraper](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/fda-drug-labels-ndc): official drug labels and NDC codes
- [Public Holidays API](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/public-holidays-api): holidays and long weekends for 100+ countries
- [US Treasury Rates](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-treasury-rates-yields): Treasury yield curves, T-bill rates and national debt
- [USGS Earthquake Search](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/usgs-earthquake-search): worldwide earthquakes by area and magnitude
- [NOAA Tides & Water Levels](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/noaa-tides-currents): tide predictions and water data for U.S. coasts
- [UK Police Crime Data](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/uk-police-crime-data): UK street-level crimes by postcode
- [UK Food Hygiene Ratings](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/uk-food-hygiene-ratings): official UK food hygiene ratings
- [Open Source Vulnerability Scanner](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/open-source-vulnerability-scanner): known vulnerabilities for open-source packages
- [FDIC Bank Data](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/fdic-bank-data): US banks, branches, financials and failures
- [FEMA Disaster Declarations](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/fema-disaster-declarations): US federal disaster declarations and aid
- [US Hospital & Nursing Home Ratings](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-healthcare-facility-ratings): Medicare Care Compare facility ratings
- [EPA Facility Compliance](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/epa-facility-compliance): EPA violations, inspections and penalties
- [US Building Permits](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-building-permits): new building permits in six US cities
- [US Restaurant Inspections](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-restaurant-inspections): NYC, Chicago and Austin restaurant health grades
- [UK House Prices](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/uk-house-prices-land-registry): Land Registry sold prices for England and Wales
- [Car Safety Ratings & Complaints](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/car-safety-ratings-complaints): NHTSA crash-test stars and owner complaints
- [Nordic Company Registry](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/nordic-company-registry): Norway and Finland company search
- [US Schools Directory](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-schools-directory): NCES public, private and college data
- [Firefox Add-ons & VS Code Extensions](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/browser-code-extensions-scraper): Firefox add-ons and Open VSX extensions
- [UK Flood Warnings & River Levels](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/uk-flood-warnings-river-levels): live England flood warnings and river levels
- [Airports Database](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/airports-database): worldwide airports, codes and runways
- [US Lobbying Disclosures](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/us-lobbying-disclosures): federal LDA lobbying filings
- [ENERGY STAR Certified Products](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/energy-star-certified-products): certified appliance and electronics models with specs
- [Car Fuel Economy & Specs (EPA)](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/car-fuel-economy-epa): EPA MPG, EV range and CO2 for 50,000+ vehicles
- [NIH Research Grants](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/nih-research-grants): NIH-funded research projects and award amounts
- [UK Find a Tender Notices](https://apify.com/pankajbhatia/uk-find-a-tender-notices): UK public tenders and contract awards

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

e.g. sunflowers, samurai, Monet, Egyptian cat.

## `museums` (type: `array`):

Which collections to search.

## `withImagesOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Skip records without an image.

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

Only works whose images are free to reuse (CC0).

## `maxResultsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

Limit for each search term in each museum.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "sunflowers"
  ],
  "museums": [
    "met",
    "aic",
    "cleveland"
  ],
  "withImagesOnly": true,
  "publicDomainOnly": false,
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 30
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One row per artwork with image links.

# 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 = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "sunflowers"
    ],
    "museums": [
        "met",
        "aic",
        "cleveland"
    ],
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 30
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pankajbhatia/museum-art-collections").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 = {
    "searchTerms": ["sunflowers"],
    "museums": [
        "met",
        "aic",
        "cleveland",
    ],
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 30,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pankajbhatia/museum-art-collections").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 '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "sunflowers"
  ],
  "museums": [
    "met",
    "aic",
    "cleveland"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 30
}' |
apify call pankajbhatia/museum-art-collections --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/5cRytlg4ARzDWrjcc/builds/wIjS5zAMymor4FQl8/openapi.json