Dresden's World-Class Art Gallery Duplicates Itself Online

Wired Magazine has reported the following:

Dresden's World-Class Art Gallery Duplicates Itself Online
By Andrew Curry
08.13.07 | 2:00 AM
If you can't make it to Dresden this summer, consider teleporting. The pearl of the city's museum collection, the Old Masters Picture Gallery, recently opened a virtual version of itself in Second Life. Second Life representatives say it's the first real-world museum to "clone" itself online, although virtual versions of other collections (most famously "Second Louvre," which has no official ties to the Paris museum) have popped up.

All 37,700 square feet of the 150-year-old building, plus the grounds outside, have been recreated, down to the trash cans and fountains in the courtyard and ceiling moldings, staircases and furniture within. The highlight, of course, is on the virtual walls: 750 paintings spanning 500 years of European art.

And Dresden isn't the only historical site to move to the net. The city of Cologne already has plans to open a virtual version of its famed cathedral, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1996, this month.