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Google Art Project: Street View goes to the museum (images)

The new Google Art Project lets you see artwork in 17 museums around the world. The images available include reproductions of some of the most important pieces of art ever created.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
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Google Art Project's trolley

Google has launched a new discovery tool, called Art Project, that lets users explore 17 of the world's most well-known museums.

With the new tool, people use Google's Street View interface to "walk" through museum halls and explore different artworks. Users can choose a specific piece and check out the on-screen information pane for background info.

Google says it plans on expanding its museum coverage, but for now it has more than 1,000 images for users to explore.

Browse the following images to see a small sampling of the great works of art Google has available in Art Project.

At left, a Google employee pushes the company's trolley to take a 360-degree view inside the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

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Museum Kampa in the Czech Republic

Google shows off how Art Project users can browse the various pieces of art in the Czech Republic's Museum Kampa.
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The National Gallery In London

Google uses Street View technology to help users walk through the halls of some of the greatest museums in the world--in this case, London's National Gallery.
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'Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea'

Google's Art Project shows off "Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea" by James McNeil Whistler, which lives at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C.
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Statue of Jupiter

The nearly 12-foot-tall statue of Jupiter, by an unknown artist, towers over onlookers at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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'Portrait of Josette Gris'

Juan Gris' "Portrait of Josette Gris" is available for in-depth examination in Google's Art Project. The original is on display at Madrid's Museo Reina Sofia.
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The Piazza San Marco In Venice

Canaletto's "The Pizazza San Marco In Venice" offers up a beautiful display of the famed public space as it was in the early 1700s. The original painting is on view at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
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'Ophelia'

Google zooms in on the tragic figure of Ophelia, from Shakespeare's "Hamlet," as famously depicted by Sir John Everett Millais. The Tate Britain houses the original.
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'Officer and Laughing Girl'

The Frick Collection in New York includes the "Office and Laughing Girl" by Johannes Vermeer. The piece is believed to have been painted in about 1657.
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'View of Toledo'

El Greco offers a "View of Toledo," currently in the collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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'Sunflowers'

Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" is at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
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'Louis XIV'

"Louis XIV" shows off a somewhat angry face in a wax-relief portrait by Antoine Benoist. The piece is on display at the Palace of Versailles.

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