The Top 10 Virtual Museum Tours for Fall of 2020

Photo caption: It’s now possible to see great works of art like “The Starry Night” on virtual museum tours. Image by user1469083764 from Pixabay.

The Louvre. The Van Gogh Museum. The National Gallery of Art. 

If you’re like most art lovers, the museums in the list above are probably on your bucket list of must-see places. And while no one can argue that it’s probably best to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa up close, it just might be that seeing her or at least the Louvre virtually is more realistic, at least for the immediate future. 

Thanks to modern technology, it’s possible for art lovers of all stripes to take in some of the best art in the world without ever leaving their couch. If you count yourself among them, then you won’t want to miss these 10 virtual museum tours.

Top 10 Best Virtual Museum Tours

1. The Louvre

Home of Wonder Woman’s day job as an art historian and of course, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre is the world’s most famous museum. As such, its virtual museum tour represents the creme de la creme of virtual tours. Some of the cool exhibits you can see via your laptop include one on Egyptian Antiquities and another on the Founding Myths of our lives. 

2. The Art Institute of Chicago

This museum is one of America’s oldest and largest, with more than 300,000 works of art covering five millennia of Earth’s history. Cool pieces to see on this collection include paintings, like Nighthawks and American Gothic. 

3. MoMA

New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was founded in 1929 and stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best museums in the world. Take this online virtual tour if you want to see Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Rousseau’s The Dream. 

4. The Guggenheim Museum

New York’s Guggenheim Museum opened in 1939. It’s home to some of the planet’s most impressive works of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and contemporary art. Explore the museum’s famous spiral staircase, architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright and more at this house of art. You won't want to miss this museum's online exhibits.

5. The Pergamon Museum in Berlin

Whether you see it in person or online, Berlin’s Pergamon Museum is always impressive. Its virtual tour includes online exhibits, like the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and the item that gives it its namesake: the Pergamon Altar.

Video caption: Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon

6. National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea

This virtual museum tour allows international art lovers to see six floors of South Korea’s National Museum without having to travel farther than their computer desktop. The virtual exhibit features artworks from around the world and is a must-see for lovers of contemporary art. This tour comes to you via Google. 

7. Natural History Museum London, England

Natural history lovers will appreciate the offerings of this museum. On any given day, this virtual tour introduces you to exhibits featuring mineralogy, botany and zoology. More than five million people tour this museum each year. For artists who love filling their sketchbooks with images of the natural world, this virtual tour is a treat: They can draw from the images they see online or gather ideas for later, when they can visit the museum in person to draw.

8. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

This tour provides visitors with a glimpse of African American history, and it’s the only national museum of its kind. In 2003, an Act of Congress established this museum. Site visitors can see 15 online exhibits in all.

9. The Van Gogh Museum

No list of virtual museum tours would be complete without a mention of the Van Gogh Museum, which features the works of one of the world’s most beloved artists: Vincent Van Gogh. Virtual visitors can see many of the artist’s masterpieces, as well as finding coloring pages and stories for kids.

Video caption: Amsterdam, Netherlands: The Van Gogh Museum

10. La Galleria Nazionale, Rome

The virtual tour of the La Galleria Nazionale offers visitors glimpses of 500 works of art from the museum’s collection. These include works by Monet, Canova and Boldini. 

Final Thoughts on Virtual Museum Tours

One of the real advantages of the Internet is the access it gives arts and culture lovers to some of the world's great art museums. Museums like the Louvre or the Guggenheim offer virtual tours that allow you to catch a view of some of the most famous images in the world with just the click of your computer mouse. 

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