Art museums have traditionally been defined by their physical spaces, fixed hours and geographic limits. But Art Authority Museum, a new immersive digital space developed by Alan Oppenheimer's team at Art Authority, aims to expand how museums present and share art.
Launched in 2024, the Art Authority Museum app curates virtual masterpieces from across history and around the world, reimagining what a museum can be in the age of virtual reality, artificial intelligence and global connectivity.
“Our mission is to bring all the world’s art to all the world,” Oppenheimer said.
A museum without walls
The Art Authority Museum exists entirely in digital space. Users can explore galleries through Apple devices, with the most immersive experience available through the Vision Pro headset.
“The Art Authority Museum is a new type of art museum,” Oppenheimer explained. “The only main difference between the Art Authority Museum and traditional museums is it has no physical presence.”
With the headset, visitors can step into virtual galleries and curated rooms that resemble a traditional museum. Unlike physical museums, the digital museum is open around the clock and accessible from anywhere.
“Because it’s an app, it can be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Oppenheimer said. “It can do magic, things like spin up rooms in seconds versus years.”
Personalization and AI-powered discovery
Personalization is a central feature of the platform. Members receive their own private virtual lounge, a concept Oppenheimer says has no equivalent in traditional museums.
“You can take any art off the wall of our museum, put it in your members' lounge and hang out with one work or 100 works," he said.
Artificial intelligence helps users discover art in intuitive ways. With a few gestures, users can generate entire rooms of artwork similar in style, subject or composition to a piece they love.
“If you’re looking at the Mona Lisa and you go, ‘I would like to see other works like the Mona Lisa,’ we magically create, within a second or two, a room of works like the Mona Lisa,” Oppenheimer said.
The system uses an algorithm to analyze both the selected artwork and Art Authority's database of more than 100,000 works to make recommendations.
Stepping inside art with spatial scenes
Art Authority leverages Apple’s spatial computing technology to immerse viewers inside iconic works of art, transforming paintings and photographs into explorable environments.
“You can totally feel like you are in 'The Last Supper,'” Oppenheimer said. “Lean in to the painting, and you’re part of the scene.”
The goal is to deepen emotional engagement and create a sense of presence that traditional museum viewing cannot replicate.
Restoring lost masterpieces
One of the museum's most striking projects is the virtual recreation of "Skygate, New York," a monumental sculpture by Louise Nevelson that was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Originally commissioned in 1978 for the World Trade Center lobby, the sculpture measured 32 feet wide and 17 feet tall. Working with the Louise Nevelson Foundation and Nevelson’s granddaughter, Art Authority used historical photographs and digital modeling.
“We realized that we could bring this work of art back,” Oppenheimer said. “We’re not going to create a 32-foot-wide physical copy, but we can do it virtually.”
The sculpture was reintroduced on Dec. 12, the anniversary of its original dedication, and now fills an entire wall in the museum’s Nevelson gallery.
Access, membership and supporting museums
The app is free to download, and visitors can explore the museum lobby and select exhibitions at no cost.
Membership unlocks additional galleries, advanced features and the personalized lounge, priced at $5 per month or $50 per year.
Oppenheimer said that digital access complements rather than competes with physical museums.
“When the web started, museums were maybe a little apprehensive,” he said. “It turned out to be quite the opposite. People look at works online and go, ‘Wow, I’ve got to see that for real.’”
A living, evolving museum
With more than 100 artist galleries and counting, the Art Authority Museum can respond quickly to cultural moments and collaborations.
“We can create a new room in days versus years,” Oppenheimer said.
Recent examples include a gallery of popes throughout history, special exhibitions from major institutions like the Brooklyn Museum and the Phillips Collection, and galleries from living artists exploring the medium firsthand.
You can learn more - and sign up for a demo of Apple Vision Pro - at artauthority.museum.
