Metropolitan Museum of Art API

Beginner's Pick Art & Design / No Auth Required Beginner HTTPS
Free to Use Varies (check documentation)
82 A
Measured Score 0 50 100 Reachability 30/30 Speed 10/20 Security 15/15 Developer XP 12/20 Reliability 15/15 TESTED 2026-07-23

Overview

The Metropolitan Museum of Art API provides open access to over 470,000 art objects from the Met collection including paintings, sculptures, and artifacts, along with high-resolution image URLs and rich metadata. It is entirely free with no API key, making it one of the best public APIs for building arts education tools or practicing API integration. You can search by medium, culture, period, or artist.

Beginner Tip

Start with https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/search?q=sunflowers&hasImages=true to get object IDs, then fetch details from /objects/{objectID}. No API key or account needed.

Available Data

Use case: Integrate met museum of art data into web and mobile applications
Metropolitan Museum of Art data via REST API

Example Response

JSON Response
{
  "route": "Line 1",
  "origin": "Station A",
  "destination": "Station B",
  "departure": "08:30",
  "arrival": "09:15",
  "status": "On Time",
  "delays_min": 0
}

Field Reference

objectID Unique identifier for the artwork in the Met collection
title Title of the artwork
artistDisplayName Name of the artist or maker as displayed in the museum
primaryImage URL to the high-resolution primary image; empty string if no public domain image is available
objectDate Date or date range when the object was created, e.g. "ca. 1886"
isPublicDomain True if the artwork image is free to use without copyright restrictions

Implementation Example

Request
const url = "https://metmuseum.github.io/";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

CORS blocked in browser The Met API does not send CORS headers on all endpoints
Make requests from a Node.js backend or use a CORS proxy for browser-based projects
primaryImage URL is empty string Many objects have rights restrictions and cannot display images publicly
Filter results where isPublicDomain is true and primaryImage is not empty before displaying images
Large search result sets A broad search term can return tens of thousands of object IDs
Add filters like hasImages=true or departmentId to narrow results; paginate by slicing the returned ID array

Measured Score Breakdown

Live HTTP request to the API endpoint

Reachability 30/30
Speed 10/20
Security 15/15
Developer XP 12/20
Reliability 15/15
Endpoint Response Time 994ms

Fully tested on Jul 23, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth No Auth
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS NO
Category Art & Design
Difficulty Beginner
Verified: 2026-04-04

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