The Met releases high-def 3D scans of 140 famous art objects

toomuchtodo

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/metropolitan-museum-o... https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?showOnly=has...

xattt

I see the “spinning” view in browser, but I don’t see an option to download the STLs. Edit: It appears the usdz AR file can be converted to obj/stl files.

jandrese

It's kind of annoying that the 3D viewer on their website keep you a respectful distance away from the object like you might try to touch it if you got too close.

minihoster

Anyone know how the material roughness/metallic is captured? For instance here https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253348 . I've only seen basic albedo for 3D scans before. Maybe it's just hand-authored.

jonhohle

> Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee. > > To request images under copyright and other restrictions, … If these are available as public domain with unrestricted use without fee, what is the use case for requesting a version under copyright with restrictions?

utopiah

Great use of WebXR. Works well both on the Vision Pro (USDz format) and Meta Quest (glTF binary format). That being said without the right mediation, without some context... unless you already are an expert in the domain what's the point?

infocollector

Does anyone know where the STL/OBJ files for the 3d models are at?

Stevvo

The original article is https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/metropolitan-museum-o... Not sure why that is not linked, instead we have an AI generated SEO spam page.

teachrdan

Any recommendations for art objects worth 3D printing at home? Bonus points if it would appeal to a grade schooler.

danielvaughn

Glad this was one of the objects captured, it's absolutely stunning to see in person: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24671 I wish they had captured one of their Faberge eggs; those are almost more impressive.

bilsbie

I wanted to try printing one but so far all of them seem like they’d be kind of disturbing to display in my house.

callumprentice

Trivial to see the raw GLB files in a Viewer that gives you a bit more control. https://github.khronos.org/glTF-Sample-Viewer-Release/?model...

IAmNotACellist

Here's a little script to download all the publicly available scans (135) as GLBs and stick the metadata in a JSON. The scans are all CC0 (public domain) https://github.com/InconsolableCellist/met_scans

beckerdo

Absolutely beautiful scans. Thanks Met. Wonderful art that brightened my day.

Eduard

> high-def 3D scans maybe 15, 20 years ago. I especially found the glossy shader goofy. No authentic replication, more 2000s gaming vibes. they should use gaussian splatting instead

mturilin

How easy is it to 3D print them?

Chronoz99

This data needs to be reprocessed to make 3D gaussian splats instead.

jsd1982

Very cool! Checking out the Van Gogh painting in the viewer I can just barely see the depth of the brush strokes. Shame you can't look 90 degrees off axis to see the protrusion effect with the bulky outer frame in the way.

samcgraw

So cool! It recently dawned on me how we have a staggering amount of art available in these archives ( https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/ , https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en , the Met, etc). It's truly staggering. Can't wait to use these images for my side project[0]. [0] https://flaneur.ink

bookofjoe

Can't wait to see how this plays with Vision Pro