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.