Google"s "Art Project" Quietly Grew From Small Hobby To More Than 150 Of World's Top Museums

Art Project is Google's effort to create Street View-inspired virtual tours of the world's best and biggest museums, including high definition photographs of the paintings. This project started out as little more than a hobby, with only a few museums signing up to participate.

For a while after Art Project's release, we've barely heard anything about its progress. But today, SFGate points out the stunning pace of the project's growth. Over 150 museums in 40 countried can now be toured through Art Project.

Just this month Google has added Musee d'Orsay in Paris and Jerusalem's Israel Museum. De Young Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art are also part of the collection. Even The White House is in on the fun!

One of Project Art's biggest success stories has been the Dead Sea Scrolls from the Israel museum, which have seen 1 million visitors within 3 days of going online.

Much more can be said about Project Art and its growing collection. But like most things art-related, the best way to know it is to see it. So rather than me writing a thousand words per picture, just follow the link in the first paragraph and check out the high-res beauty for yourself.