Why can a museum give away a Van Gogh?

The painting's copyright expired long ago. The museum owns its photograph of the painting, and releases that photograph under CC0, so nothing restricts the image.

Are all works in these museums free?

No. Works still in copyright (most 20th-century and contemporary art) are not released and are not searched here. Only works the museum marks public domain or CC0 appear.

Can I put museum art on products I sell?

Yes, for CC0 images: posters, cards, apparel and packaging are all allowed. Avoid suggesting the museum endorses your product, and don't use the museum's name or logo as branding.

Licensing

Museum open access: free public-domain art you can reuse

Updated November 3, 2026 · 2 min read

Short answer

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art release photographs of their public-domain works under CC0: you may print, crop, recolour and sell them without asking or crediting anyone. Image Asset Server searches all three directly (public-domain works only) and shows the museum, the date and the file sizes, up to full-resolution TIFF for Cleveland.

Three museums, one search

Museum	Open-access images	Best for	Largest files
The Metropolitan Museum of Art	400,000+	Paintings, Japanese prints, armour, antiquities, early photography	Originals of several thousand pixels
Art Institute of Chicago	60,000+	Impressionism, American art, prints and drawings	Any width through IIIF
Cleveland Museum of Art	30,000+	High-resolution art for print	Full-resolution TIFF

All three are searched at once, alongside Wikimedia Commons, which holds many more museum scans uploaded by volunteers and institutions.

Using the files

Web: a 1600–1920 px copy is plenty. The detail view’s download buttons pick it for you.
Print: use the original. At 300 dpi, an A3 poster needs about 3500 × 4960 pixels; Cleveland’s TIFFs and the Met’s originals often reach that.
Credit: not required for CC0, but a caption such as Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1906. Art Institute of Chicago is good practice.

What to watch

Photographs of three-dimensional objects (sculpture, armour, ceramics) are also released, but their photographer’s copyright is what the museum waives: it’s the same CC0. Works by living or recently deceased artists stay in copyright and are not searched. When the museum’s record names a lender or a copyright holder, the work is left out.

Questions

Why can a museum give away a Van Gogh?: The painting's copyright expired long ago. The museum owns its photograph of the painting, and releases that photograph under CC0, so nothing restricts the image.
Are all works in these museums free?: No. Works still in copyright (most 20th-century and contemporary art) are not released and are not searched here. Only works the museum marks public domain or CC0 appear.
Can I put museum art on products I sell?: Yes, for CC0 images: posters, cards, apparel and packaging are all allowed. Avoid suggesting the museum endorses your product, and don't use the museum's name or logo as branding.