Rijksmuseum Collection Scraper

Rijksmuseum Collection Scraper

Scrape the Rijksmuseum's public collection of 800,000+ artworks by search term, object type, or artist. Each record includes the title, maker, date, medium, and permanent link. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The Rijksmuseum's official API requires a key and rate-limits you. This Actor reads the public collection pages directly, letting you search by keyword, filter by object type or maker, and collect up to a million records in one run. Every artwork comes back in a clean, flat row ready for analysis.

Who uses it	What they scrape Rijksmuseum for
Art historians	Catalog every known work by a specific Dutch master for a research database.
Data scientists	Build a training dataset of painting metadata and descriptions for a machine learning model.
Cultural marketers	Gather all public-domain images and their details for a social media content calendar.
App developers	Populate an art discovery app with structured data from the Rijksmuseum collection.

What it does

This Actor collects artworks from the Rijksmuseum's online collection by search query, object type, or maker name, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🔍 Full-text search: Find artworks by keyword in the title, like 'Night Watch' or 'self-portrait'.
• 🎨 Object type filter: Narrow results to paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, or sculptures.
• ✍️ Maker filter: Collect every piece attributed to a specific artist, such as Rembrandt van Rijn.
• 📦 Bulk collection: Set a high maximum and pull up to a million records in a single run.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Rijksmuseum data

📚 Build a complete artist catalog.

An art historian sets the maker to 'Rembrandt van Rijn' and collects every work to analyze his use of chiaroscuro across periods.

🤖 Train a style classifier.

A data scientist scrapes all paintings and drawings to create a labeled dataset for a computer vision model that identifies Dutch Golden Age techniques.

📱 Seed a museum guide app.

A developer collects the full collection metadata to bootstrap a mobile app that lets users browse and search the Rijksmuseum from their phone.

📊 Analyze collection composition.

A curator pulls all records, filters by object type, and charts the distribution of paintings versus prints to inform a new exhibition strategy.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Access the public collection without registering for an API key or managing OAuth.
Fixed schema	Every artwork returns the same fields, so your dataset is always consistent.
Flexible export	Save results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for direct use in any tool.

How it compares

This Actor and the other Rijksmuseum Collection Scraper both target the same public collection, but they differ in the filtering options they expose.

Feature	ParseForge	Rijksmuseum Collection Scraper
Full-text search by artwork title	Yes	Yes
Filter by object type	Yes	Yes
Filter by maker or artist name	Yes	Not listed
Filter by century or date range	Not listed	Yes
Filter by on-display status	Not listed	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a search term, object type, and maker name, alone or in combination, and filters run as each artwork is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

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

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Rijksmuseum Collection Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. 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 Rijksmuseum through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/rijksmuseum-collection-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that your search term, object type, or maker name is spelled correctly and matches the Rijksmuseum's cataloging. Try a broader search or remove filters one by one to see which one is too restrictive.

The scraper stopped before reaching my maximum items.

The Actor collects all available results matching your filters. If the Rijksmuseum collection has fewer matching artworks than your maximum, the run will finish early. This is expected behavior.

Some artworks are missing fields in my dataset.

The Rijksmuseum's own records may not have every field populated for every object. Missing data in the source will appear as empty cells in your export.

The run is taking a long time.

Collecting a large number of artworks requires many requests. Reduce your maximum items or narrow your filters to speed up the run.

I am getting an error when I try to export my data.

Ensure your dataset is not empty. If the run completed with zero results, adjust your filters and try again. If the dataset has data, try a different export format.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a Rijksmuseum API key to use this scraper?	No. This Actor reads the public-facing collection pages on rijksmuseum.nl, so no API key or registration is required.
Can I search for a specific artwork by title?	Yes. Use the search term input to perform a full-text search on artwork titles. For example, entering 'Night Watch' will return that painting and any other works with matching titles.
How do I filter results to only show paintings?	Set the object type input to 'painting'. The Actor will then only return records where the object type matches that filter.
Can I scrape all works by a single artist?	Yes. Enter the artist's name in the maker input, such as 'Rembrandt van Rijn', and the Actor will collect every work attributed to that maker.
What is the maximum number of artworks I can collect?	You can set the maximum artworks input up to 1,000,000 per run. The Rijksmuseum collection contains over 800,000 objects, so you can collect the entire catalog.
What data fields does the scraper return for each artwork?	Each row includes the title, maker, date, medium, object type, inventory number, and a permanent link to the artwork's page on the Rijksmuseum website.
Can I combine search, type, and maker filters?	Yes. All three inputs are optional and can be used together. For example, you can search for 'landscape' paintings by 'Jacob van Ruisdael'.
Does this scraper download the artwork images?	No. This Actor collects the metadata and a link to the artwork's page. The image files themselves are not downloaded.
Is the data from this scraper in the public domain?	The Rijksmuseum makes its collection data and images of public-domain works freely available. You should review their terms of use for your specific application.
What export formats are supported?	You can export your dataset in CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML format from the Apify platform.

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 Rijksmuseum. 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.