Founded by Catherine the Great in 1764, The State Hermitage
Museum has weathered its fair share of drama. During the
coronavirus pandemic, its collection – featuring Scythian gold from
the 7th century BCE and a load of Rembrandts – can be viewed in
this comprehensive, five-hour film, while you can also snoop on the magnificent
building in real-time via webcam.

Retrospectives of Andy Warhol and Aubrey Beardsley were set to headline at Tate
Modern and Tate Britain respectively. With the museums’ doors
closed, curators are diving into the stories behind the exhibitions
online,
where you’ll also find a bountiful archive including artwork,
ephemera and podcasts. Inspired? Hone a craft with the gallery’s
How To series.

On the banks of the Arno, the Uffizi
(“offices”) belonged to the powerful Medici family in the
mid-1500s. Today, you can tour its world-class collection of Renaissance art in
your pyjamas. Many visitors beeline to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus,
but we’re gawping at Alessandro Allori’s ceiling frescoes. You’ll
spot some smashing views over the Ponte Vecchio too.

Spanning 6,000 years from Mesopotamian figures to Van Gogh’s
Irises via a sunny sculpture plaza, the Getty’s collection is
among the best on the West Coast – and in your home, thanks to this
virtual tour and a wealth of online resources including digitised books,
podcasts and videos. We’ll be ogling at Michaelangelo’s
sketches.

The JAG
holds sub-Saharan Africa’s largest art collection, featuring old
Dutch and European paintings as well as contemporary African work –
so you’re as likely to stumble across Pierneef as you are Picasso
here, as well as work by visual activist Zanele
Muholi. There are great online exhibits about queer identities and
the power of photography during Apartheid too.

Featuring artefacts that have never before left Egypt, Tutankhamun:
Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh is currently residing at the
Saatchi Gallery, on its third stop of a 10-city world tour. The
exhibition previously sold out in LA and Paris, so take this
opportunity to skip the queues and watch a short tour on IGTV or YouTube. The gallery is also hosting workshops by
artists and creatives every weekday at 2pm on Instagram Live.

Athens’ National Archaeological Museum is considered the
world’s richest collection of Greek artefacts, in which you can
trace the ancient civilisation from prehistory to late antiquity,
through Bronze Age metalwork, vibrant frescoes, Hellenistic
pottery, Cycladic marble sculptures and the like. Its website has a
few online resources, but if it’s a virtual tour you’re after, try
the Acropolis Museum instead.

Australia’s cultural capital has one of the highest densities of
commercial art galleries in the world. Among them is the National Gallery of
Victoria, which is making sure that art lovers stuck at home
can stay connected with virtual exhibition tours (KAWS: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness feels
very timely) as well as essays and interviews. Make sure to follow
the #NGVEveryDay hashtag on Instagram for a daily dose of
inspiration.

The RA’s Picasso and Paper exhibition was among spring’s
must-see exhibitions in London – and now it’s a must-see online too. Delve into the academy’s vast
archive of videos (we’re currently enjoying the three-part series
on Antony Gormley) and Artists in Isolation, a column in which
creatives share their lockdown experience. The beloved Summer
Exhibition – the world’s largest open-submission art show – has
been rescheduled for autumn 2020.

Highlighting cultural connections forged across the world,
Louvre Abu
Dhabi is helping its global audience stick-out lockdown with
its Art from Home initiative, in which it shares a
new selection of work every few days. After something more
in-depth? Download the free Louvre Abu Dhabi app for curator-led tours and
discussions on the museum’s best-loved pieces.

Most of us recognise Dippy, the Natural History Museum‘s replica of a
diplodocus skeleton – and if you don’t, this interactive experience will introduce you to him,
along with the museum’s other 80 million specimens. Dive into the
life of a blue whale, let Sir David Attenborough guide you around
Hintze Hall or flick through Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Need a lockdown
project? The museum website features activities including how to make beeswax food wraps and a guide to
the British birds you’re likely to spot in spring
and summer. New York’s American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Museum
of Natural History in Washington, DC have some digital
resources too.

The Vatican Museums – of which there are 54 – hold an
immense collection of art amassed by the Roman Catholic church from
the 17th century onwards. Between soaring vaulted ceilings you can
admire ancient busts, Etruscan bronzes and frescoes on a virtual tour, making sure not to miss
Michaelangelo’s handiwork in the Sistine Chapel. Alternatively,
head to YouVisit, for a guided jaunt of St Peter’s Square and
other landmarks in the Vatican City.

Overlooking the Nervión river, Frank
Gehry’s sculptural museum is something of an icon in the art
world. This interactive tour takes you inside, where modern
and contemporary treasures include pieces by de Kooning, Rothko and
Kapoor, as well as on the roof. We love Bending Gravity, a collaboration between urban
photographer Trashand and free-runner Johan Tonnoir.

Bringing to life the African American experience on DC’s
National Mall, the NMAAHC is among the Smithsonian Institution’s newest
outposts, having been opened in its permanent home by Obama in
2016. While its IRL exhibits – items from a sunken slave ship,
manacles used in the Deep South, relics of segregation, a dress
sewn by Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves – are
thought-provoking, its many digital resources come a close second.

Set in the former railway station and hotel Gare d’Orsay, this
glass-roofed, beaux-arts museum houses the world’s largest
collection of impressionist and post-impressionist work, including
pieces by French masters Manet, Monet and Renoir. Here, you can get up close to masterpieces such
as Van Gogh’s self-portrait and Cézanne’s still lifes.

The Dutch capital’s national museum of art and history famously has
a tunnel in it through which you can cycle. While you’ll have to
trade in two wheels for one screen today, you can get up close with
every brushstroke in its Gallery of Honor (featuring Rembrandt’s The Night
Watch and Vermeer’s The Milkmaid), tour other rooms or watch its curators discuss their favourite
artwork from the confines of their own homes.

With a globe-stretching collection that features international
names and up-and-coming Korean artists, the National Museum of
Modern and Contemporary Art is offering interactive tours that
tick the boxes for design, photography and large-scale
installations. The museum’s IRL branches are spread across Seoul,
Gwacheon, Deoksugung and Cheongju, so this is a great opportunity
to see a load of work under one roof – that “roof” being yours.