Met Museum Showcase Screensaver
The Met Museum Showcase screensaver rotates through real artworks from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Open Access collection. It is free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Met Museum Showcase screensaver works
The saver reads a real rotating sample of objects with public images from the Met's Open Access API.
Each artwork shows its real title, artist, date and medium as catalogued by the Met.
The pipeline refreshes the sample on its own schedule.
No key is required for this key-less public endpoint.
The Met's Open Access programme
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York describes its collection as representing five thousand years of human history. Through its Open Access initiative, introduced in 2017, the museum makes images and basic data for works in the public domain available under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) dedication, so anyone can download, share and remix them without asking permission. The data covers all accessioned works, but high-resolution images are offered only for public-domain objects.
The collection API returns a record for each object, with fields such as title, artist, an object date, medium, culture, department and a link to a primary image. Many of those values are cataloguing conventions, not tidy facts. A date like ca. followed by a range signals scholarly uncertainty, and an artist field may be empty, name a workshop or school, or carry an attribution qualifier.
Only objects with an available public-domain image can appear in the board, so the selection is a fraction of the museum's holdings. The works range widely across media and eras, so the sample often mixes paintings and prints with armour, textiles and archaeological pieces. A caption shows how the Met catalogues an object today, and attributions are sometimes revised as research advances.
A worked example
A real painting catalogued with its real artist name and creation date fills the screen exactly as the Met describes it.
Settings & tips
- All artworks, artists and dates are real Met collection records, not generated.
- Accent recolours the caption panel.
- Only objects with a public Open Access image are shown.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real museum data?
- Yes — real artwork records from the Met's Open Access API.
- Is a key needed?
- No. The Met's collection API is fully key-less.
- Are these real photos of the artworks?
- Yes — real Open Access images published by the Met.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Why do some entries have a blank artist?
- Many objects, such as ancient artefacts or anonymous craft items, have no known maker, so the museum may leave the artist field empty or describe a culture instead.
- What does 'ca.' mean in a date?
- It stands for circa, meaning approximately, and signals that the date is an estimate.
- Are all of the Met's artworks included?
- No. Only public-domain objects with an image can appear. Works still under copyright or without an image are left out.