For what it's worth I thought the modal dialog on the original was worse than the pop-over ad on the copy.

It works really well with the AR viewer on mobile Safari.

I wish they would also publish the source images used to generate the 3D representation so people can recreate with other techniques.

No idea what they used but I know that in Brussels they use CultArm3D FT20 by https://verus.digital basically a camera on a robot arm.

From what I saw in that file and a few others (in USDZ), the metalness is not captured. It's in 0/1_b.jpg , and the file is always pure white. You are only seeing roughness I opened them in Houdini and it translates to a USDPreview material, with those PBR channels connected: basecolor, roughness (decent map), metallic (no data, juste white) and normal map (decent map too)

No idea. But I've integrated their API to a commercial project (https://bookmarker.cc) without any issues. Users are exploring The Met Collection and save images to their library directly in the app.

> Through The Met Collection API, users can connect to a live feed of all Creative Commons Zero (CC0) data and 406,000 images from the The Met collection, all available for use without copyright or restriction. The Met Collection API is another foundational step in our Open Access program, helping make the Museum's collection one of the most accessible, discoverable, and useful on the internet. The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can now connect to the most up-to-date data and images of artworks in The Met collection, representing five thousand years of human history.

source: https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/met-collection-api-2

Not everything is open access data and public domain images.

This image is tagged open access & public domain: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/321937

This image is not: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/492371