Public Domain Art Images: Met & AIC Search

museum	met
provider	The Metropolitan Museum of Art
objectId	436524

How it will work: 3 steps

Follow us on ApifyThe tool is built and waits in the queue for the Apify Store. Apify is the cloud platform where our tools run.
Paste your input and press StartNo code needed: you fill in a form (the input). It already has a working example. For example: met in Museums. Each start is one run.
Download the resultsWhen the run ends, the results are in a table (the dataset). Open Output, press Export and pick Excel or CSV. JSON and the API are there too.

This tool is an Apify Actor: a small program that runs on Apify. You can also run it on a schedule, for example every Monday. New to it? Read how it works, step by step and the 8 words you need first.

Made by Cliqto Media, an independent digital media company. We made this tool. About us

What it does

Search The Met and Art Institute of Chicago for artwork metadata and public-domain image links. This Actor brings artist names, creation dates, credit lines and rights flags into one dataset. No museum API key is needed.

Who uses it

Teachers

Find open images for a lesson.

Designers

Build a shortlist of art by artist and date.

Writers and bloggers

Check rights before you pick an image.

Price

Prices will be shown after release.

Questions

Are the images free to reuse?

Image links come only for confirmed public-domain records. Still check the museum page.

Do I need a museum API key?

No. The museum sources are public.

Does an empty search cost money?

Yes, only the small start fee.

Can I export the full collection?

No. One run gives up to 200 works.

Can I get more than 200 works?

A single run supports at most 200 rows. Split your searches by subject, museum or years. The Actor does not promise a complete collection export or provide a pagination cursor.

Is this a drop-in replacement for other museum Actors?

The inputs and field names are specific to this Actor. Use the tables above to map them into your workflow.

Details

Step by step on Apify

Open Input. The form shows sunflowers, both museums, public domain only and 20 rows.
Keep these values and click Start.
Open the Artworks output view for titles, artists and image links.
Open Rights for licences and credit lines.
Check Run summary for per-museum counts and limits, then export the Dataset.

Use cases

Task	Input	Key fields
Find open images for a lesson	Subject query, public domain only	`title`, `primaryImageUrl`, `creditLine`
Build a design research shortlist	Query plus artist or years	`artist`, `dateStart`, `dateEnd`, `medium`
Check reuse rights before selecting art	One or both museums	`publicDomain`, `licence`, `objectUrl`

Tips for better results

One run gives up to 200 works. Split by museum, subject or years.
Always check the museum page for third-party rights.
Use the credit line when you show an image.

Limits and good to know

A forced platform kill can stop the process before the final summary is written. Dataset storage and event charging are separate operations; a lost storage response can need manual reconciliation.

At most 200 saved rows per run, 180 Met candidates and 400 Chicago candidates, with a shared budget of 240 source requests and 2 MB of response data. A Met-only search therefore returns at most 180 rows
Requests are sequential for each museum, about one per second. Selective filters can use the whole candidate budget and still find no eligible works
Use 256 MB memory. Other memory settings are rejected before museum requests
Internal source work is bounded to 245 seconds or an earlier platform deadline. Raising the platform timeout does not expand the search
complete means this query was exhausted within the bounds. not_found means it was exhausted with no eligible records
partial with MAX_RESULTS, SCAN_LIMIT or TIME_LIMIT means more matching candidates may remain. These bounded runs succeed
partial with CHARGE_LIMIT means the buyer budget stopped delivery; the run succeeds
Source errors, a deadline hit while retrying a failing source, invalid input or cancellation make the run fail. Any rows saved before the stop remain available; the summary is partial if there are rows, otherwise error

For developers

Sample result

One result from a real test run, in JSON. Real values change from run to run. In Excel or CSV each field is a column.

one result · JSON

{
  "museum": "met",
  "provider": "The Metropolitan Museum of Art",
  "objectId": 436524,
  "title": "Sunflowers",
  "artist": "Vincent van Gogh",
  "date": "1887",
  "dateStart": 1887,
  "dateEnd": 1887,
  "medium": "Oil on canvas",
  "dimensions": "17 x 24 in. (43.2 x 61 cm)",
  "department": "European Paintings",
  "publicDomain": true,
  "licence": "CC0",
  "metadataLicence": "CC0",
  "primaryImageUrl": "https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ep/original/DP-41223-001.jpg",
  "iiifUrl": null,
  "creditLine": "Rogers Fund, 1949",
  "objectUrl": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436524",
  "sourceUrl": "https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/objects/436524",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-10-14T00:47:17.631Z",
  "sourceUpdatedAt": "2026-02-04T04:58:06.107Z"
}

Data fields (21)

Field	Type	Meaning
`museum`	string	Museum code: met or aic. Use with objectId as a unique key.
`provider`	string	Full name of the museum that supplied this record.
`objectId`	integer	Positive integer artwork ID from the museum. IDs can overlap between museums.
`title`	string	Artwork title from the museum; null when missing.
`artist`	string	Artist display text from the museum; may include nationality and dates. Null when missing.
`date`	string	Original creation date label, such as c. 1950. Null when missing.
`dateStart`	integer	Start of creation period in integer years; negative means BCE. Null when absent.
`dateEnd`	integer	End of creation period in integer years; null when absent.
`medium`	string	Original material or technique text; null when missing.
`dimensions`	string	Original dimensions text, including source units; null when missing.
`department`	string	Museum department name; null when missing.
`publicDomain`	boolean	Museum public-domain flag. Null means the source did not supply a boolean.
`licence`	string	Image reuse classification: CC0, restricted_or_other, or unknown.
`metadataLicence`	string	Licence for returned metadata: CC0. Chicago description text is excluded.
`primaryImageUrl`	string	HTTPS open-image link only when publicDomain is true and an image exists; otherwise null.
`iiifUrl`	string	Chicago IIIF presentation manifest URL for confirmed open images; null for Met or restricted/missing images.
`creditLine`	string	Museum credit text to keep with the artwork; null when absent.
`objectUrl`	string	HTTPS museum page for this artwork.
`sourceUrl`	string	HTTPS first-party API record for this artwork.
`fetchedAt`	string	ISO timestamp when this Actor read the record.
`sourceUpdatedAt`	string	Record update time in the museum source system (Met metadataDate, Chicago source_updated_at); null when missing.

Input settings (8)

The main fields of the input form. With the API you send them as JSON.

Setting	Name in the API	Type	Example value
Search words required	`query`	string	`"sunflowers"`
Museums	`museums`	array	`["met", "aic"]`
Public domain only	`publicDomainOnly`	boolean	`true`
Department contains	`department`	string
Artist contains	`artist`	string
Creation year from	`dateFrom`	integer
Creation year to	`dateTo`	integer
Maximum artwork rows	`maxResults`	integer	`20`

The Met and Art Institute of Chicago Artwork Search

How it will work: 3 steps