Skip to content

Public Domain images from 'The Met'.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is the latest gallery to put many of their images into the public domain.  Now you can, legally, use them to decorate your PowerPoint presentations or Word documents.

The Met has released about 375,000 images under Creative Commons Zero CC0 licence.  That means there are no rights restrictions on using the work, even in commercial situations.

How to use

Go to http://metmuseum.org/art/collection and do a search.

Make sure you choose the ‘Artworks with image’ and ‘Public Domain’ options.

Click on an image you like to see a larger version with details of the piece.

Any image that you can freely use is marked ‘Public Domain’.

Download the image in all the usual ways that your browser permits.  Right-click on the image and look for ‘Save As …’ or ‘Copy image’ options, depending on the browser.

For a larger image, use the ‘Download’ button on the web page opens a much larger version in a separate browser window.

Not all images are available for rights free use. For example, many of Rodin’s works are available but others like Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone are not.

About this author

Office-Watch.com

Office Watch is the independent source of Microsoft Office news, tips and help since 1996. Don't miss our famous free newsletter.