Manet, Cézanne and Van Gogh all share one thing in common: at least one of their works has been stolen. Thanks to a virtual reality application, it is now possible to admire these paintings that we thought were lost forever.
A real little virtual museum that fits in your pocket. The Stolen Gallery of Art app, already available on Android and iOS, lets you admire five paintings in virtual reality. It is the Brazilian start-up Compass which provides free access to these five works, which have since disappeared.
With this application, everyone can admire at home stolen paintings such as Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt or The Nuenen rectory garden in spring by Van Gogh. This modeling makes it possible to scrutinize these paintings as closely as possible, something impossible even in a museum. Compass recommends in particular the use of a virtual reality helmet in order to push the immersion to the maximum.
But for Alexis Rockenbach, CEO and co-founder of Compass, the app’s real added value lies in its interactivity, as he tells Fast Company: “Exploring things that help you interact with other people on specific things not available in the physical world is definitely the most exciting thing we’ll see coming.” Indeed, the application allows you to create notes or sketches visible to other users, in addition to the audio guides already available.
If we can now admire five paintings, the Brazilian company hopes to integrate other works in this small virtual museum, or even organize exhibitions in the metaverse.