Hundreds of exhibitions have been postponed, and art institutions and museums closed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But thanks to advanced digital technology, you can now explore museums around the world from the comfort of your home.

Museum app Smartify has made all its museum audio tours free for the rest of 2020. Often dubbed as “Shazam for art”, it allows people to identify paintings and works of art by simply scanning them on a smartphone. The app is home to a database of around two million artworks from more than 120 venues.  

The cat's out the bag - we're making all of our audio tours free for 2020 so you can continue to virtually visit museums from home!

Including tours from @WattsGallery @MuseumofLondon & @WaddesdonManor

Check out this piece in @guardian to find out why: https://t.co/fTo3KBTPAU

— _smartify (@_smartify) March 26, 2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibitions that were due to open but now cannot will be launched on the app as audio and visual tours. 

Art galleries are now adding virtual tours for the closed exhibitions. This includes the Watts Gallery-Artists’ Village in Surrey. The exhibition which explored the art critic John Ruskin was closed one week into its opening.

We are very excited to announce our new @_smartify tour, created in collaboration with the @DeMorganFâÂÂÂÂÂœ¨

Listen now: https://t.co/gmAprQeGYq pic.twitter.com/icAvikmdY0

— Watts Gallery (@WattsGallery) April 20, 2020

Furthermore, The Clash: London Calling audio tour will soon also be added by The Museum of London on Smartify. The Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire and The Lowry in Salford are also working on tours that are to be added in the app. 

Some of the audio and visual tours that are now free to listen include one by Mary Beard, a mythology trail through the RA’s collection, and a masterpieces of the Louvre tour which takes people from the Great Sphinx of Tanis to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and The Virgin of the Rocks.