A holiday break usually sees families heading for a vacation overseas but Malaysians are now cooped up in their homes waiting for the pandemic to subside.
The Movement Control Order is unlikely to come to an end any time soon, so the boredom that comes with staying in your house grows ever daunting.
But with digitalisation, you can now visit world famous museums without leaving the safety of your room.
Sure, the experience of physically seeing artefacts and art pieces up close and personal is hard to beat, but there is no shame in enjoying online tours where you still learn something new.
Here are five museums that offer virtual tours of their galleries for free:
1. The Louvre, Paris
A large and grand palace in Paris, the Louvre is France’s most renowned art gallery and museum.
Built on the site of an old castle, the Louvre served as the residence and private art gallery of France’s Kings.
During the French Revolution, the Louvre was opened to the public for the first time and it has been a public museum ever since.
It has the finest collection of pre-modern French paintings in the world and is home to one of the most renowned art pieces in the world, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.
The virtual tour offered by the Louvre unfortunately does not include a viewing of this masterpiece, but you can instead gawk at the archaeological finds of French Egyptologist teams.
You can also visit the Galerie d’Apollon, to view its many paintings and sculptures, as well as the ruins of the castle that stood before the Louvre.
Visit https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne#tabs to take a look.
2. British Museum, London
The British Museum is a must-visit when holidaying in London, but now, you can see some of its eight million exhibits through the screen of your digital device.
Take a peek at the Rosetta Stone, which ended up being the key to understanding the mysterious hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians.
Or study the Elgin Marbles, a collection of beautiful ancient Greek sculptures that once stood proudly in the Parthenon at Athens.
The museum’s artefacts have been carefully documented and photographed for online visitors to view, and there are thousands of entries to go through.
The Google Cultural Institute assisted this museum by offering virtual tours through its Google Street View technology.
Visit https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-british-museum to start your virtual tour.
3. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC
Film buffs may remember the Museum of Natural History as the setting of Ben Stiller’s film, Night at the Museum.
While the exhibits unfortunately do not come to life every night due to the magic of a mystical tablet, it still remains a highly popular museum.
The world’s most visited natural history museum holds a large collection of exhibits ranging from fossils to gems to meteorites to early human artefacts.
Enjoy a room-by-room virtual tour that will have you up close and personal with these exhibits as you wander through the museum’s many halls.
Visit https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour to see them for yourself.
4. Vatican Museum, Vatican City
Who knew that Popes used to be avid art collectors? But sure enough, the Vatican is indeed home to many beautiful sculptures, magnificent murals and other art pieces.
The Sistine Chapel of the Vatican is where you can find the masterpiece of the Renaissance artist, Michelangelo.
His frescoes that adorn the ceilings are considered to be one of the most impactful works in art history and are indeed a sight to behold when you see them for the first time.
The Vatican Museum offer online visitors tours that give them a 360˚ view of the galleries, which proves especially helpful when viewing the vaulted ceilings of the Sistine Chapel.
Drop by http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/tour-virtuali-elenco.1.html to marvel at these splendid works of art.
5. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Many of the artworks of Dutch maestro Rembrandt, can be found housed in this art museum in Amsterdam.
The most prominent of these artworks is “The Night Watch”, one of the most famous paintings of the Dutch Golden Age.
The museum is the largest art museum in the Netherlands and annually receives over two million visitors.
With over 80 galleries to explore filled with artwork and artefacts alike, there is no shortage of recognisable masterpieces in each gallery.
Take a look for yourself by visiting https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/rijksmuseum.
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