FANS of the British Museum are now able to avoid the crowds and enjoy some 5,000 high-resolution images of the museum’s collection online, including the prestigious Chinese painting “Admonitions Scroll,” thanks to Google Street View technology.

    “Admonitions Scroll” is one of the most important paintings in the world. It was originally painted by Gu Kaizhi (about 345-406), who is regarded as the father of classical Chinese figure painting. The scroll’s full title “Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies” (“Nüshi Zhentu”) indicates the work’s moralizing tone. In the scroll, the protagonist, the court instructress, advises the ladies of the palace on correct behavior.

    The original painting was lost; the version now housed in the British Museum is the closest copy and was made during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It has become one of the museum’s must-see artworks. However, this antique is now so fragile that it is only displayed a few months out of the year.

    After being photographed over three days by Google, the scroll, like the other 5,000 or so artworks, has been captured at “gigapixel” resolution that allows viewers to zoom in at the level of the individual fibers.

    Some other museums and heritage sites in Britain have previously used Street View technology to showcase one-off exhibitions or parts of collections. The British Museum is the largest institution in the world to display its entire collection via Google Street View.

    The British Museum already receives 6.7 million visitors annually. Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said the project was not intended to replace the experience of a real-life museum but add to it.

    The museum’s website has already employed web technology, putting 3 million images of its artifacts online. But it is said the Google project would tackle the “library catalog” problem, allowing viewers to navigate its collection much more easily.(SD-Agencies)