Art lovers worldwide can now revel in the Louvre’s most iconic works of art straight from home: the museum has made its entire collection of more than 482,000 items available to view for free on a new online database. 

Online visitors can readily access some of the museum’s most famous pieces, such as Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Seated Scribe, and the Mona Lisa – without having to book a ticket to Paris or going through the usual mob of tourists with their phones up. 

The catalog is divided into categories like paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, and more, and there are also thematic albums for portraits and historical events, for example. Users can also simulate a visit to the Louvre and explore the museum’s rooms via an interactive map, or simply search for a specific piece. 

“Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known,” the Louvre president-director Jean-Luc Martinez said in a press statement. “I am sure that this digital content is going to further inspire people to come to the Louvre to discover the collections in person.”

Along with artworks on public display at the museum, the new database also includes items in storage and pieces from the Delacroix museum, which is run by the Louvre, and sculptures from the Tuileries gardens. Viewers can also access works from the MNR (Musées Nationaux Récupération, or National Museums Recovery) that were recovered after WWII and that have yet to be restored to their legitimate owners. The online database will be continually updated and expanded with new items and research. 

Pre-pandemic, the Louvre was the most-visited fine arts museum in the world, with over 10 million visitors in 2019. The museum was shuttered in March 2020 and reopened over the summer with restrictions, but now remains closed to visitors due to Paris’s lockdown measures. Meanwhile, the museum has been undergoing renovations with cleanups and the addition of new security systems.