The Met launches new mobile app to debut its metaverse experiences with Roblox

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) has stepped into the metaverse for the first time with its recent collaboration with Verizon and Roblox on a mobile app to provide AR experiences in education, art, and gaming, with a particular feature to allow visitors to collect digital replicas of selected exhibits.

The collection of digital replicas requires users to visit the museum in person. Using the in-app map of the museum, like being on a treasure hunt, visitors can be guided through more than 30 galleries across nine curatorial areas such as American Wing, Egyptian Art, European Paintings, and Asian Art.

By scanning the selected exhibits on-site, their digital replicas alongside educational information will be collected to The Met Replica while the collectibles can be transferred to the Roblox inventory as wearable items for the Roblox avatar.

37 artworks out of the Met’s more than 1.5 million objects were selected to create their metaverse copies. Highlights include Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat in 1887, Antonio Canova's  Perseus with the Head of Medusa in 1804, and Anna Hyatt Huntington's Reaching Jaguar in 1906.

“This groundbreaking app brings artwork from the Met’s illustrious collection into the virtual realm of Roblox, transforming the way visitors engage with art and crafting a captivating, fun, and truly unique journey through the museum,” Met director Max Hollein said in the museum statement.

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