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Museums all over are providing pieces from their collections in free and open databases for everyone to view and use. From paintings to sculptures and even archeological items, high-quality scans have been taken and uploaded to the databases.
These artworks are in the public domain due to their age or the artist's wishes. These public domain images are labeled with a Creative Commons 0 license. This license means that anyone can take these images, remix them, and create anything they want with them even for commercial purposes. Those using these resources have to make sure that as they use the file and cite it they don't make it look like the creator or facility related to the item is endorsing what you are doing with the item. Of course, be sure to check any terms of use to make sure you are using these resources appropriately.
Here are a few museums you can find these open-access databases online.
Smithsonian
https://www.si.edu/openaccess
Collections from the 21 Smithsonian museums, archives, national zoo, and research centers. This means not only art but also scientific data is available through this database. At the time of launch in 2020 there were 2.8 million assets and as items are documented and released into the public domain this number will only grow.
The Cleveland Museum of Art https://www.clevelandart.org/art/collection/search?cc0=1
Closer to home this art museum has had an open-access collection since 2019. A free museum to visit and also no matter where you are in the world you can digitally visit as well. Metadata is provided to show the artwork's copyright status.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?searchField=All&showOnly=openAccess&sortBy=relevance
Over 406000 of the MET's artwork is available to use under a public domain license. Since 2017 these high-res images have been made available for anyone to use.
Getty Museum
https://search.getty.edu/gateway/search?q=&cat=source&r=%22GRI+Digital+Collections%22&sources=%22GRI%20Digital%20Collections%22&highlights=%22Open%20Content%20Images%22&rows=10&srt=a&dir=s&dsp=0&img=0&pg=1
Started in 2013 the open content program at the Getty Museum has over 160,000
images available to use for free.
Remember to check what you end up picking out because other items of the collection are up on the databases too, but you can filter down to just the public domain licenses.
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