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Met Museum Open Access Art Scraper

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Met Museum Open Access Art Scraper

Scrape artwork records from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's open-access collection API. Returns full metadata for 490k+ objects including title, artist, department, medium, dimensions, classification, culture, period, credit line, AAT subject tags, and CC0 image URLs.

What you get

Each scraped record contains:

Field Description
object_id Numeric Met Museum object ID
accession_number Museum accession number
accession_year Year the object was accessioned
is_public_domain CC0 licence flag
is_highlight Met highlight designation
is_on_view Currently on display
title Object title
artist_display_name Artist name
artist_display_bio Artist biographical note
artist_nationality Artist nationality
artist_begin_date Artist birth year
artist_end_date Artist death year
artist_wikidata_url Artist Wikidata URL
artist_ulan_url Artist Getty ULAN URL
object_date Creation date (human-readable)
object_begin_date Earliest creation year (integer)
object_end_date Latest creation year (integer)
medium Materials (e.g. "Oil on canvas")
dimensions Physical dimensions
classification Object type (e.g. "Paintings", "Prints")
department Museum department
culture Culture of origin
period Historical period
dynasty Dynasty (for antiquities)
credit_line Acquisition credit line
gallery_number Gallery number
object_name Object type (e.g. "Painting", "Vase")
primary_image_url Full-resolution CC0 image URL
primary_image_small_url Web-size CC0 image URL
additional_image_urls Pipe-separated additional image URLs
tags Pipe-separated AAT subject tags
object_url Met collection page URL
object_wikidata_url Object Wikidata URL
metadata_date Record last updated date
repository Repository name

Modes

Search mode (default)

Discover objects by keyword query with optional filters:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "van gogh",
  "hasImages": true,
  "departmentId": 11,
  "dateBegin": 1880,
  "dateEnd": 1920,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Filters available in search mode: departmentId, hasImages, isHighlight, isOnView, dateBegin, dateEnd, geoLocation, medium.

Walk mode

Iterate the full collection or a department without a keyword:

{
  "mode": "walk",
  "departmentId": 11,
  "maxItems": 500
}

Omit departmentId to walk the entire 490k+ object collection.

Incremental mode

Fetch only objects whose metadata was updated on or after a date:

{
  "mode": "incremental",
  "metadataDate": "2026-01-01",
  "maxItems": 1000
}

Use this for scheduled runs that pick up newly added or corrected records.

By-ID mode

Fetch specific objects by their Met object ID:

{
  "mode": "by_ids",
  "objectIds": ["436535", "436529", "436944"],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Department IDs

ID Department
1 American Wing
3 Ancient West Asian Art
4 Arms and Armor
5 Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
6 Asian Art
7 The Cloisters
8 The Costume Institute
9 Drawings and Prints
10 Egyptian Art
11 European Paintings
12 European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
13 Greek and Roman Art
14 Islamic Art
15 The Robert Lehman Collection
16 The Libraries
17 Medieval Art
18 Musical Instruments
19 Photographs
21 Modern Art

Notes on image URLs

Image URLs point to the Met's CDN (images.metmuseum.org) and are served under the CC0 licence for public-domain objects. This actor exports URL strings only — it does not download or rehost pixel data.

Data source

Data is sourced from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's public collection API at collectionapi.metmuseum.org. No authentication is required. The Met requests polite use — this actor operates well below the advised 80 req/sec cap.

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