Virtual clone of the Old Masters Picture Gallery Dresden in Second Life

The State Art Collections Dresden (Germany) are the first museum to have responded to the new challenges of the web by producing a genuine 1:1 clone of the Old Masters Picture Gallery. This concept is therefore fundamentally different from the many purely fictitious museum creations on the web which have no counterpart in real life.

Dresdengallery: Hall of Raphael's Sistine Madonna

The whole of the gallery building is reproduced: all 56 halls and cabinets, and every one of the 750 paintings. Basic information about each work of art can be obtained, special events are offered by the Education department, visitors can record their impressions in the Guestbook and a shop offers virtual products. Since the opening at the end of May 2007 there are circa 170 visitors daily.

I based the experiment on the working hypothesis that for the first time two key experiences characteristic of a museum visit can be reproduced on the new three-dimensional web: namely, space and interaction. Please have a look: www.dresdengallery.com.