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World-Famous Met Museum Offers 400,000 Art Pieces for Free in Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a welcome respite for many during these uncertain times. Players have turned to the Nintendo Switch game to hold virtual celebrations and spend time together with their friends. The game can help alleviate some aspects of the world's current social isolation and thanks to a recent update to Blather's museum, players can start collecting and displaying historical works of art.

While certainly not a replacement for the real thing, New York's world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art is offering 400,000 iconic art pieces to Animal Crossing players. They can't be displayed in Blather's museum but can otherwise be placed anywhere on the game's tropical islands. To start, players can visit The Met's entire virtual collection on its official website and narrow the display results to those under "Open Access." After selecting a piece of art, visitors will find a "share" icon directly beneath the art. Clicking it brings up the usual choices: direct link, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest followed by Animal Crossing's leaf logo. Clicking the leaf will bring up the option to crop the art and generate a QR code. These QR codes work with the "NookLink" function in the Nintendo Switch Online mobile app.

With that, players are well on their way to owning a (virtual) Renoir or Botticelli. The Met has joined two other museums, the privately-owned M WOODS museum in Beijing added a virtual exhibition within the game where visitors can peruse works by Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Lu Yang, and Nicolas Party. Los Angeles' Getty Museum is also helping spread fine art throughout the Animal Crossing world with the Animal Crossing Art Generator. The generator is currently being used by The Met and Getty but can also be used for open-access art at any museum listed here.

Source: Bijutsu Techō