Met Museum Artworks Scraper
Pricing
from $3.62 / 1,000 results
Met Museum Artworks Scraper
Searches The Metropolitan Museum of Art's public collection by keyword and returns each matching artwork as a flat row with title, artist, date, medium, and catalog metadata.
Pricing
from $3.62 / 1,000 results
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ParseForge
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2
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1
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3 days ago
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Met Museum Artworks Scraper
Scrape The Met's entire public collection by artist, artwork, or keyword, up to a million records per run. Every artwork comes with its title, artist, date, medium, and accession number. No API key or registration. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art publishes its collection online, but browsing page by page is slow and manual downloads are limited. This Actor searches the Met's public collection by any keyword you supply and returns every matching artwork in a structured dataset. You get the full object record for each piece, ready for research, cataloging, or content projects.
| Who uses it | What they scrape The Metropolitan Museum of Art for |
|---|---|
| Art historians | Gathering all works by a specific artist or from a particular period for a research corpus. |
| Content creators | Building a searchable database of public-domain artworks for a blog, newsletter, or social media series. |
| Educators | Compiling a themed collection of artworks with full metadata for a course syllabus or digital exhibit. |
| Data analysts | Analyzing trends in medium, geography, or acquisition dates across thousands of museum objects. |
What it does
This Actor searches The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection by a keyword you provide and returns each matching artwork as a flat row with its title, artist, date, medium, and other catalog metadata.
- 🔍 Keyword search: Enter any artist name, artwork title, or descriptive term and get every match from the collection.
- 📊 Flat row output: Each artwork is returned as one row with consistent fields, ready for spreadsheets or databases.
- ⚙️ Configurable volume: Set a maximum number of artworks to collect, from a single sample up to a million records.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with The Metropolitan Museum of Art data
🎨 Build an artist's complete catalog.
An art historian searches for 'Rembrandt' and collects every attributed work in The Met's collection, with dates, mediums, and accession numbers for a publication appendix.
📚 Curate a themed digital collection.
An educator searches for 'ancient Egypt' and gathers hundreds of objects with full metadata to populate a course website or virtual gallery.
📈 Analyze collection patterns.
A data analyst searches for 'Japanese' and collects thousands of records to chart acquisition dates, medium shifts, and department distributions over time.
🖼️ Source public-domain images for content.
A content creator searches for 'botanical' and extracts all matching artworks to identify public-domain pieces for an illustrated newsletter.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| No API key needed | The Met's public collection is open. This Actor reads it directly with no registration or authentication. |
| Structured output | Every artwork arrives as a flat, predictable row with the same schema, unlike the museum's nested web pages. |
| Bulk collection | Collect up to a million records in one run, far beyond what manual browsing or the museum's own export can handle. |
How it compares
This Actor and the alternative below both scrape The Met's collection. Here is how they compare on the capabilities their listings describe.
| Feature | ParseForge | Met Museum Scraper - Art Collection Data |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword search across the collection | Yes | Yes |
| Configurable maximum items per run | Yes | Not listed |
| No API key or registration required | Yes | Yes |
| Flat row output with consistent schema | Yes | Not listed |
| Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, and XML | Yes | Not listed |
Configure the run
Drive the Actor with a single search query and a maximum item count. The search runs against artwork titles, artist names, and catalog metadata, and only matches that meet your keyword are returned. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
A larger pull:
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.004 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $0.40 |
| 1,000 results | $4.00 |
| 10,000 results | $40.00 |
New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.
Free users
Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.
Run it
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the Met Museum Artworks Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.
Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.
Use with AI agents (MCP)
Give an AI agent live access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:
Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no results for my search?
Check your spelling and try a broader term. The Met's search is literal. If 'Van Gogh' returns nothing, try 'Gogh' or a specific painting title like 'Starry Night'. Also verify that the museum's website is reachable from your browser.
The scraper stopped before reaching my maxItems limit.
The Actor collects every result The Met returns for your query. If the museum's search returns fewer results than your maxItems setting, the Actor finishes early. Try a broader or different keyword to get more results.
Some artworks are missing fields in the output.
The Met's catalog has gaps. Older or less-documented objects may lack an artist attribution, date, or medium. The Actor returns whatever metadata the museum provides. Missing fields appear as empty values in your dataset.
The run is taking too long.
Lower your maxItems count or use a more specific search query that returns fewer results. The Actor respects the museum's servers, so large collections take time to retrieve page by page.
I got an error or timeout during the run.
The Met's website may be temporarily slow or unavailable. Retry the run after a few minutes. If the problem persists, check the Apify platform status and try reducing maxItems to shorten the run duration.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need a Met Museum API key to use this scraper? | No. This Actor reads the museum's public collection search pages directly. You do not need to register an application or obtain any credentials. |
| What data fields does each artwork row include? | Each row includes the artwork title, artist name, object date, medium, accession number, department, and other catalog metadata that The Met publishes publicly. The exact fields are shown in the sample output on this page. |
| Can I scrape the entire Met collection? | The collection contains over 470,000 objects. You can set maxItems to a high number and use a broad keyword, but the search interface may not surface every single object with one query. Running multiple targeted searches by artist, period, or department gives the most complete coverage. |
| Does this scraper download the artwork images? | No. This Actor collects the catalog metadata for each artwork. It does not download the image files themselves. The image URLs are included in the output when available. |
| What search terms work best? | Artist names, artwork titles, and descriptive keywords all work. For example 'Monet', 'water lilies', or 'Impressionist' will each return relevant results. The search matches against multiple metadata fields. |
| How long does a large scrape take? | The Actor processes results page by page. A few hundred records finish in seconds. A run targeting tens of thousands of artworks will take longer, scaling with the number of results the museum returns for your query. |
| Can I filter by date, medium, or department? | The Actor uses The Met's own search, which accepts a free-text keyword. To narrow results, include terms like 'bronze', '19th century', or 'Asian Art' in your search query. There are no separate filter fields beyond the keyword input. |
| Is the data from this scraper legal to use? | The Met publishes its collection data under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license for most records, meaning the metadata is in the public domain. Always verify the license for specific artworks if you plan to use images. |
| What output formats are supported? | You can export your dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML directly from your Apify run. The dataset is also accessible via the Apify API for integration into your own applications. |
| Can I schedule this scraper to run regularly? | Yes. Apify supports scheduled runs. You can set this Actor to run daily, weekly, or on any cron schedule to track new acquisitions or refresh your dataset. |
Related actors
Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.
🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.
⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.
