If some missing masterpieces -- like the Mona Lisa, stolen in 1911 -- have been recovered, others have never resurfaced. Now, art lovers can discover some of these works in virtual reality thanks to an application called "The Stolen Gallery of Art."
This app was designed by the Brazilian start-up Compass to give a new lease of (virtual) life to works by Caravaggio, Manet, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Rembrandt. Users can discover digital versions of missing paintings by these artists and learn more about their history through audio descriptions, reminiscent of museum audio guides.
In the interest of interactivity, the app also allows art lovers to create notes and sketches for others to see. The goal is to give users the opportunity to interact with lost works such as Caravaggio's "Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence" and Rembrandt's "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee" in a way that they could never do in a museum.
"Initially, when we thought about the environment of the museum, we thought about building something similar to a typical museum: fancy building with a lot of content around the art pieces," Compass CEO and cofounder, Alexis Rockenbach told Fast Company. "We ended up choosing a completely different approach, a minimalist approach, where you [are] in this dark space where the only thing you really are paying attention to is the art piece."
"The Stolen Gallery of Art" app is available to download free for iOS and Android. However, Compass advises using it while wearing an Oculus Quest virtual reality headset to further immerse yourself in these famous paintings now waiting to be rediscovered. The startup hopes to include more missing works in the app in the coming months, or even to exhibit them in a (virtual) gallery in the metaverse.
