The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world. In 2019, it was visited by 9.6 million people and even with the pandemic, which caused people to travel less, it still received 2.7 million visitors. Though the museum was closed for 6 months in 2020 and the number of visitors plummeted, its website louvre.fr, however, was visited 21 million times.

The managers of the website noticed this growth in online visitors and have been updating it. Now it is easier to use, divided into three sections, and optimized to be friendly to smartphone users.

But the big project for which you will be even more excited is the collections.louvre.fr database, which contains 482,000 pieces from the museum. This database is designed both for art lovers and researchers, so depending on someone’s needs, there are more simple and more advanced search tools. Also, the database continues to grow and more pieces are added from the collection.

On the website, you can explore through categories, for example, paintings or sculptures, or you can choose to go through themed albums, like ‘Kings, Queens and Emperors.’ A fun and interesting feature is the interactive map of the museum where you can virtually explore separate rooms.

The almost half a million exhibits include works from the Louvre and the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, sculptures from the Tuileries and Carrousel gardens, and ‘MNR’ works (Musées Nationaux Récupération, or National Museums Recovery). The latter works were found after World War II and they are stored temporarily until they can be returned to their true owners from which they were looted.

Also, the database includes pieces that not only are displayed in the museum, but that are on loan in other museums, or in storage. So you can access the whole collection that you wouldn’t even be able to see in real life just with a touch of your fingertip. And there is no catch—it is completely free! Plus, you don’t need to wait in line or try to get through the crowd to see the more famous paintings.

No doubt, the most famous art piece in the Louvre is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. When the museum was open, this painting was always surrounded by a crowd. But there are so many more to see. The second most visited work is the statue Venus de Milo, which attracts with its mystery. The Louvre holds the Death Of The Virgin by Caravaggio, another of da Vinci’s works, The Virgin Of The Rock, the famous Liberty Leading The People by Eugène Delacroix, and many more. Now, when the whole collection is public and can be seen for free, it’s a splendid opportunity to discover new or rediscover old treasures.

Sadly, the physical Louvre is still closed due to the measures the French government took to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the opening date is unknown. The majority of museums around the world are closed and around 6 percent have had to close permanently because they couldn’t survive financially. Even though this project of putting the collection online won’t bring money to the Louvre, it will feed people’s souls, because that’s what we need right now.