In
a new initiative designed to assist scholars with teaching, study, and the publication
of academic works, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will distribute, free of
charge, high-resolution digital images from an expanding array of works in its
renowned collection for use in academic publications. This new service, which
is effective immediately, is available through ARTstor, a non-profit
organization that makes art images available for educational use.
"The
Metropolitan Museum of Art has long sought to address the significant
challenges that scholars confront in seeking to secure and license images of
objects from the Museum's collections," stated Metropolitan Museum
Director Philippe de Montebello in making the announcement. "We hope,
through this collaboration, to play a pioneering role in addressing one of the
profound challenges facing scholars in art history, and scholarly publishing,
today."
ARTstor's
Executive Director,
Initially
approached by the
ARTstor,
a digital image library, was created in 2001 as a non-profit initiative of The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It is now an independent non-profit organization
dedicated to serving education and scholarship in the arts and humanities. The
more than 730 non-profit institutions currently participating in ARTstor are
located in North America,
The
Metropolitan Museum of Art – founded in 1870 with a mission to collect,
preserve, and display works of art spanning 5,000 years of world culture from
every part of the globe, and to educate the public about art – is the
most comprehensive art museum in the Western Hemisphere with a collection now
including more than two million works of art.
March
13, 2007
Nancy Allen
Director of Museum Relations
ARTstor
212 500-2422