Over the weekend I was enjoying an in-depth browse through, looking at some of the ancient sculptural, ceramic, pottery and other remarkable art pieces being sold by Christie's Auction house of London. The particular auction took place on
26 April 2012. I was shocked by how high some of the realized prices were and even more surprised by how many lots just did not make minimum. I was a bit disappointed that as good a quality as these piece were that I could not see more detail on some of the items. I had gone on a Google quest for larger images, when I stumbled upon this art blog, "
Nord on Art". A very informative and knowledgeable blog where there were larger images of a number of the great items from the afore said auction. I stared reading back the posts on the "Nord on Art" blog and came across this
"Free – Download more than 300 Met Museum catalogs" and much to my dismay, indeed there are 368 Metropolitan Museum of art books beautifully digitized and offered to the public for free. What a beautiful and kind gesture for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to make! One can either read and enjoy these lavishly informative books on line or download them for your home eLibrary in PDF format! Now I have to say, how cool is that! Also, almost all of these books are out of print and many are difficult to obtain in the original printed editions. This collection has books for almost every interest. Here are just a few of the many exciting titles that are available:
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Blue and White: Early Japanese Export Ware
Lerner, Martin
(1978) |
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Dangerous Liaisons:
Fashion and Furniture
in the Eighteenth Century
Koda, Harold, and
Andrew Bolton,
with an introduction
by Mimi Hellman
(2006 |
 |
European Terracottas from the
Arthur M. Sackler Collections
Draper, James David
(1981) |
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Firearms from the Collections
of the Prince of Liechtenstein
Pyhrr, Stuart W.
(1985) |
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The Robert Lehman Collection.
Vol. 11, Glass
Lanmon, Dwight P.,
with David B. Whitehouse
(1993) |
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Wordrobe
Martin, Richard
(1997) |
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China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange
Le Corbeiller, Clare
(1974) |
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Turkish Miniature Paintings and Manuscripts
from the Collection of Edwin Binney, 3rd
Binney, Edwin
(1973) |
I will take this opportunity to thank the Metropolitan Museum of Art four this magnificent gift to the world of art. This is and will continue be, a boon to artists, scholars, educators, and collectors for many a year to come.
Please note. All copyright for images and information is held by respective copyright owners and is solely for non commercial use. So please do not misuse their generosity. Thank you.
