Museum MCP Server

MCP Server for global museum collections — give AI agents access to 570,000+ artworks from the world's greatest museums. No API key required.

Museums Included

Museum	Collection Size	API Key
Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC)	470,000+ objects	None required
Art Institute of Chicago	100,000+ objects	None required

Tools (9 total)

Tool	Description
tool_search_artworks	Search artworks by keyword in Met or Chicago
tool_get_artwork_details	Full metadata for a specific artwork
tool_search_by_artist	Find all works by a specific artist
tool_get_met_departments	List all Met Museum departments
tool_search_by_department	Search within a specific Met department
tool_get_museum_highlights	Curated highlights from either museum
tool_get_random_artwork	Discover a random artwork
tool_search_by_period	Search by historical period (Renaissance, Baroque, etc.)
tool_compare_museums	Compare results across both museums simultaneously

Installation

pip install museum-mcp-server

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "museum": {
      "command": "museum-mcp-server"
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

"Search for Monet paintings in both museums"
"Show me highlights from the Metropolitan Museum of Art"
"Find Renaissance artworks in the Art Institute of Chicago"
"Give me details about artwork 436535 from the Met"
"Show me a random artwork from Chicago"
"Compare results for 'ancient Egypt' across both museums"

Data Sources

• Metropolitan Museum of Art: metmuseum.github.io — Open Access API, 470,000+ objects spanning 5,000 years
• Art Institute of Chicago: api.artic.edu — Free API, 100,000+ works including paintings, sculptures, prints

No API Key Required

Both APIs are completely free and require no authentication. This server works out of the box.

License

MIT — Free to use, modify, and distribute.

Author

AiAgentKarl — Building the AI Agent Economy, one MCP server at a time.