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Auckland Art Gallery, Te Papa join Google Art Project
Wed, 4th Apr 2012
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Google has unveiled a major expansion of its Google Art Project, which displays artworks from galleries around the world online, including the addition of works from New Zealand venues The Auckland Art Gallery and Te Papa.

85 artworks from the Auckland Art Gallery and 166 artworks from Te Papa are available to view online, with viewers able to zoom in on particular pieces to view them in even more detail than would be possible with the naked eye.

Overall, the Google Art Project includes over 30,000 high-resolution works in 151 museums across 40 countries. 46 museums are available in Google Street View.

Other cool new features include the ability to build a personal gallery, with comments on each artwork, and special search tools that allow the user to explore by period, artist or type of artwork.

Amit Sood, head of the Google Art Project, writes in a blog post announcing the upgrade that the project is part of Google’s efforts to bring culture online and make it accessible to the widest possible audience.

"Since we introduced the Art Project last year, curators, artists and viewers from all over the globe have offered exciting ideas about how to enhance the experience of collecting, sharing and discovering art,” Sood says.

"Institutions worldwide asked to join the project, urging us to increase the diversity of artworks displayed. We listened.”

Go here to check it out.