OMuRAA - Online Museum Resources on Asian Art

The OMuRAA enumerates museums with Asian Art collections online.

- All online Collections
- Digital Image Libraries
- One Country/Region Focus

The largest online collections are ...
[following text from OMuRAA website]

• American Museum of Natural History: Asian Ethnographic Collection
  Featuring more than 44,000 objects from the AMNH's Asian Ethnographic Collection. Find objects by culture or country, and filter results to see only objects currently on view at the AMNH. Label information only; no descriptions.  

• Art Gallery of Greater Victoria: ARTBase
  The Art Gallery has "the most comprehensive collection of Japanese art in Canada," and thousands of objects from this collection appear in this online database, along with a large collection of Chinese art and smaller collections of Korean and Vietnamese art. Excellent zoom feature for all objects.

• The Art Institute of Chicago: Asian Collection
  Selected works from the Art Institute's collection of Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan, and Korean art. Currently featuring more than 1,000 artworks, some with short but informative descriptive text. Images enlarge and can be grouped into a personal collection that can be saved and shared.

• Asian Art Museum of San Francisco: Online Collection
  Currently featuring approximately 5,000 objects from the Asian Art Museum's collection of art from China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Himalayas, and West Asia. Search by keyword or by art type. All images enlarge and some have descriptions.

• The British Museum: Collection Highlights
  Select a country from the list to see objects and related content. More than 600 objects from East, South, and Southeast Asian countries are featured. Most objects have lengthy descriptions, and some objects offer links to more in-depth articles about a specific historical period or topic related to the object. 

• The Cleveland Museum of Art: Asian Art Collection
  Explore the CMA's online collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and Southeast Asian art by department. There are nearly 5,000 objects online in these categories; currently more than 2,000 of these include images. Images enlarge and can be grouped into a personal collection that can be saved and shared.

• Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: The Collections
  Featuring more than 5,000 objects from the Freer/Sackler's collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and Himalayan art. All images enlarge, and many also have short descriptions. The Search Collections function finds objects by keyword or phrase. Users can also register and use the e|GALLERY tool to gather favorite objects from the collection into a gallery that can be shared with others.

• Harvard Art Museums: Collections Online
  This database with advanced search options includes more than 15,000 images from the University's Arthur M. Sackler Museum, which includes art from China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Images do not enlarge and include only label information.

• Indianapolis Museum of Art: Asian Art
  Browse 16 highlights from the Indianapolis Museum's collection of art from China, Japan, Korea, India, Tibet, and West and Southeast Asia, or select Collections Search from the sidebar to view more than 2,400 images of objects from the museum's Asian art department. All images enlarge, and some have descriptions.

• Kyoto National Museum: Masterworks from the Collection and Online Database
  More than 100 selected "masterworks" from the Kyoto Museum's collection of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and South Asian art are organized into the following categories: Archaeology, Ceramics, Sculpture, Paintings (subcategories: Buddhist Paintings, Handscrolls, Portraiture, Ink Paintings, Early Modern Paintings, and Chinese Paintings), Calligraphy, Textiles, Lacquerware, and Metalwork. Each category features 5-10 objects, all with descriptive text and full enlargements. There is also a searchable online database of more than 5,000 objects from the museum's collection.

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Experience Art LACMA
  An excellent website for exploring the LACMA's extensive online collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South and Southeast Asian art. Select a category and browse artworks by subject, type, artist, and more; or view the Highlights section to see a selection of works with full descriptions; or use the search function to find a specific object. An Image Viewer tool allows users to enlarge all images and to gather favorites in an online collection that can be saved for later viewing.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Asian Art
  The Metropolitan Museum's content-rich website offers many options for exploring its online collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan art. See 49 specially selected artworks (all with zoom views and descriptions) in the Collection Highlights section, or go to the Timeline of Art History (link at the bottom of the page) and browse artworks by country/culture, time period, or subject area; or search for artworks and featured content for a specific country/culture or topic by using the Timeline website's Search function. All images here enlarge, and most have full descriptions. There is also a My Met Gallery feature that allows users to group favorite objects into a personal gallery that can be saved and shared.

• Minneapolis Institute of Arts: The Art of Asia
  The Explore the Collection section of this content-rich site features nearly 3,500 objects from the MIA's collection of Asian art. All images have a Zoom View; most images have descriptions. A Featured Objects section highlights 20 objects from the collection in great detail (through curator interviews), and six Featured Collections showcase objects in the following categories: 1) Ancient Chinese Bronzes; 2) Architectural Models; 3) Chinese Furniture; 4) Imperial Silks; 5) Taoist Art; and 6) Ukiyo-e. Users can also browse objects by country/region or by one of 15 subject categories (architecture, paintings, ceramics, drawings, etc.) or use the keyword search. An Add to My Collection feature allows users to create an online gallery to save and to share. 

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Art of Asia
  Explore the MFA's large online collection of Asian art by using the Advanced Search option or by browsing one of the many sub-collections. Many sub-collections have an "Interactive Tour" feature. Images enlarge to Full View and Zoom View; the latter provides excellent close-up detail of objects. The My MFA Gallery feature allows users to group favorite objects into a personal gallery that can be saved and shared.

• Norton Simon Museum: Asian Art Collections
  Selected works from the museum's collection of Asian art, which is "particularly rich in art from the Indian subcontinent." Five artworks are highlighted on the main collections page; select the "See more artwork..." link below the highlights to go to a database currently featuring more than 600 works, most of which are from South and Southeast Asia. All images enlarge with a zoom/pan feature.

• Pacific Asia Museum: Explore the Collections
  Featuring more than 2,500 objects from the Pacific Asia Museum's collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Himalayan, and Pacific Islands art. The Image Viewer tool enlarges all images and also allows users to gather favorite objects from the collection into a gallery that can be saved and shared with others. Browse the Featured Collections section to see artworks grouped by country and type, or use one of the three search functions. The Click & Search function makes it easy to find works by country/culture.

• Peabody Essex Museum: Collections
  Featuring more than 500 works art from Asia. Browse by department -- Korean, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Asian Export -- or use the ARTscape self-guided search tool. Most images in ARTscape have descriptions, and some have additional detail images and extended text descriptions.

• Philadelphia Museum of Art: Asian Art Collections
  Explore the Philadelphia Museum's online collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan art by browsing the objects currently on view, or by using the Search the Collections function. Currently there are more than 700 objects online in these categories. Images can be enlarged with a Zoom View tool that provides excellent close-up detail of objects. Some objects also have audio introductions (find these objects by selecting Options under the Keywords search field and then selecting the box next to "Show Only Records with Audio Files." There is also a My Gallery feature that allows users to group favorite objects into a personal gallery that can be saved and shared.

• Smith College Museum of Art: Five College Museums/Historic Deerfield Collections Database
  This database includes more than 1,000 objects from the Asian art collection of the Smith College Museum of Art. Not all database entries include images, and only some images enlarge.

• Tokyo National Museum
  Featuring more than 500 objects from the TNM's collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian & Southeast Asian Art. There are no object descriptions, but the images are of excellent quality and enlarge several times to show great detail. There is no search tool, but groups of objects can be viewed in many ways: By country, further organized by time period; or by type -- Archaeology, Sculpture, Painting, Calligraphy, Decorative Arts, and Others -- further organized into useful sub-categories.

• The University of Michigan Museum of Art: Asian Art Collections
  Explore the UMMA's online collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, and Southeast Asian art by browsing highlight objects from each department, or by using the Search Online function. Currently there are more than 3,500 objects online in these categories. Images can be viewed in various sizes and also zoomed and panned, and a Portfolio feature allows users to group favorite objects into a personal gallery that can be saved and shared.

• Victoria and Albert Museum: Asia Collection
  Explore the V&A Museum's online collection of Asian art by reading about 16 featured objects or by using the Search the Collections function (top item in left column). Currently there are more than 5,000 objects online in the Asia collection. All images enlarge, and most have descriptions. Also see the ASIA FEATURES section for discussions of 12 Asia-related topics.