Cleveland Museum of Art API
Free Cleveland Museum of Art API with no key: 60,000+ artworks with open-access images, provenance, exhibition history and full metadata. Tested curl example.
Endpoint tested and returned HTTP 200 on 2026-08-19
What is the Cleveland Museum of Art API?
The Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access API is a free, key-free API providing more than 60,000 artworks with high-resolution open-access images, provenance records, exhibition history and detailed metadata.
Cleveland was an early mover on open access and released a large share of its collection under CC0. The API exposes not just images and titles but provenance chains and exhibition history, which is unusually deep for a free museum API.
Filtering by `cc0` restricts results to works you can definitively reuse, which saves checking each record individually — a practical convenience the larger museum APIs do not offer as directly.
Quick facts
- Base URL
https://openaccess-api.clevelandart.org/api- Authentication
- No API key required.
- Rate limit
- No published hard limit; fair use expected.
- Pricing
- Free. CC0 works are freely reusable including commercially.
- CORS
- Not enabled — call it from your server
- Official docs
- Read the docs
How to use the Cleveland Museum of Art API
Every request below was executed against the live API on 2026-08-19, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.
1. Fetch artworks from the open access collection
GET https://openaccess-api.clevelandart.org/api/artworks/?limit=1
curl 'https://openaccess-api.clevelandart.org/api/artworks/?limit=1'const res = await fetch("https://openaccess-api.clevelandart.org/api/artworks/?limit=1");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);import requests
res = requests.get("https://openaccess-api.clevelandart.org/api/artworks/?limit=1", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json()){
"info": {
"total": 68770,
"parameters": {
"skip": 0,
"limit": 1,
"select": "accession_number,accession_number_sortable,cover_accession_number,department,gallery,classification_type,collection,department"
}
},
"data": [
{
"id": 94979,
"accession_number": "1915.534",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Nathaniel Hurd, c. 1765. John Singleton Copley (American, born The Thirteen Colonies, 1738–1815). Oil on canvas; framed: 90.5 x 78 x 6.5 cm (35 5/8 x 30 11/16 x 2 9/16 in.); unframed: 76.2 x 64.8 cm (30 x 25 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1915.534",
"current_location": "204 Colonial American",
"title": "Nathaniel Hurd",
"creation_date": "c. 1765",
"creation_date_earliest": 1760,
"creation_date_latest": 1770,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "American Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "American - Painting",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 90.5 x 78 x 6.5 cm (35 5/8 x 30 11/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 76.2 x 64.8 cm (30 x 25 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.905,
"height_inch": 35,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.78,
"width_inch": 30,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"depth": 0.065,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_iParameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
limit | integer | Optional | Results per page, max 1000. 10 |
skip | integer | Optional | Pagination offset. 20 |
q | string | Optional | Search query across the collection. vase |
cc0 | boolean | Optional | Restrict to CC0-licensed works only. true |
has_image | string | Optional | Only return works with images. 1 |
Response fields
info.totalinteger- Total works matching the query.
data[].titlestring- Artwork title.
data[].creatorsarray- Artist records with role and biography.
data[].creation_datestring- Date or period of creation.
data[].imagesobject- Web, print and full-resolution image URLs.
data[].share_license_statusstring- CC0 or restricted.
data[].provenancearray- Ownership history of the object.
What you can build with the Cleveland Museum of Art API
- Source CC0 artwork images with confirmed reuse rights
- Research provenance and exhibition history
- Build art discovery tools with rich metadata
- Create educational resources on art history
Common errors and how to fix them
Missing images object
Not every record has a digitised image.
Fix: Pass has_image=1 to filter to records with images.
Restricted license status
The work is not CC0.
Fix: Filter with cc0=true when you need images you can definitively reuse.
Cleveland Museum of Art API — frequently asked questions
Is the Cleveland Museum of Art API free?
Yes, completely free with no API key, and a large portion of the collection is released under CC0.
How do I get only images I can reuse?
Pass cc0=true to restrict results to CC0-licensed works, which can be used freely including commercially.
Does it include provenance information?
Yes, which is unusual for a free museum API. Records include ownership history and exhibition history alongside the standard metadata.
How does it compare with the Met API?
Cleveland offers deeper provenance and exhibition data and a direct CC0 filter; the Met has a larger collection. Both are free and key-free.
Tools that pair with this API
Image Cropper
Crop images online to an exact rectangle with pixel-precise x, y, width and height inputs or aspect-ratio presets. Free, private and browser-based.
JSON Formatter
Format, beautify and minify JSON online with 2-space, 4-space or tab indentation. Sort keys alphabetically and catch syntax errors instantly — free and private.
Cleveland Museum of Art is an independent third-party service and is not affiliated with ByteTools or ByteVancer. Details on this page were verified on 2026-08-19; always check the official documentation before relying on this API in production, as terms and limits can change.