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Home / Travel

Virtual museum tours offer reprieve for travellers with nowhere to go

NZ Herald
17 Mar, 2020 05:00 PM4 mins to read

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Wander around the Great Court and its glass and steel roof of the British Museum in London on a virtual tour. Photo / Viktor Forgacs, Unsplash

Wander around the Great Court and its glass and steel roof of the British Museum in London on a virtual tour. Photo / Viktor Forgacs, Unsplash

Holed up in your living room somewhere and getting bored? Finished bingeing on your Netflix favourites and craving some more arts and culture?

You can still see the sights of the world without leaving the comforts of your couch. Google Arts & Culture has teamed up with over 500 museums and galleries around the world to help bring virtual tours to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

The collection of museums and galleries allows you to look and wander around inside in the same way you can use Google Street View.

Google's collated a top 10 list to help get you started.

READ MORE:
• Europe: Museums you must visit
• Denmark: Copenhagen classics
• The world's best museums for families
• Museum Notebook: Essential travel companions

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The British Museum, London

Founded in 1753, the museum has developed over the centuries and its buildings are of national importance. Through its virtual tour, you can wander round the Great Court and its glass and steel roof, and visit iconic cultural artefacts including an original Easter Island statue and the Rosetta Stone.

What'd y'all do on your lunch breaks from home today? I visited the @britishmuseum and learned about the ancient city of Lachish. Really cool UI on this virtual museum tour. Great to break up #WFH monotony. https://t.co/L50fmpF2Uo

— Sean Kinney (@seankinneyRCR) March 16, 2020

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

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The Musée d'Orsay in Paris is one of the largest art museums in Europe, and houses famous works by Monet, Cézanne and Gauguin. The virtual tour will take you through French art and sculpture exhibitions from 1848 to 1914.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

This museum is dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Google's virtual tour of the Seoul building spans across six floors and features collections from Korea and around the world.

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

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The iconic Uffizi Gallery is known for its collection of works by the Renaissance 'old masters'. You can explore masterpieces by Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli and Titian all from the comforts of your living room.

Anyone can wander through the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, from the comforts of their own home. Photo / Supplied
Anyone can wander through the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, from the comforts of their own home. Photo / Supplied

Pergamon Museum, Berlin

The Pergamon Museum is one of Germany's largest museums and home to many ancient artefacts and ruins. Virtually wander past excavated columns and buildings including the Pergamon Altar, the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and the Market Gate of Miletus.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Rijksmuseum exhibits over one million objects. Its virtual tour can take you past over 8000 artefacts of art and history between the years 1200 to 2000. Some of its notable works are from painters such as Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

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California's J. Paul Getty Museum houses works from the 8th to 21st century. Google's virtual tour showcases paintings, drawings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts and decorative arts.

Guggenheim Museum, New York

The New York museum has a unique corkscrew design with a spiralling ramp for a continuous journey through its art collections. Start at the bottom and virtually wind your way up the ramp and around through the exhibitions of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary works.

Viewers of a virtual tour of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City can wind their way up the spiralling ramp through exhibitions. Photo / Reno Laithienne, Unsplash
Viewers of a virtual tour of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City can wind their way up the spiralling ramp through exhibitions. Photo / Reno Laithienne, Unsplash

MASP, São Paulo

The Museum of Art of São Paulo is known as Brazil's first modern museum. Artworks are suspended in perspex frames, making it look like they're floating in mid-air. The actual museum building itself also has been constructed to appear as if it is hovering above the ground, which creates a public plaza beneath it.

National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

The museum is devoted to the archaeology and history of Mexico's pre-Hispanic civilisations. In this virtual tour, there are 23 exhibit rooms which feature artefacts from Mayan civilisation, and giant stone heads found in jungles of Tabasco and Veracruz.

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