UK to Create First National Digital Catalogue of Public Sculptures by 2020

In a groundbreaking initiative, the UK plans to establish a thorough digital inventory of its public sculptures within the next three years, becoming the first nation to undertake such a project. Art UK, a non-profit organization, has partnered with the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association to catalog around 150,000 sculptures held in public collections, which includes 16,500 outdoor monuments, while excluding antiquities created prior to 1000. The endeavor is supported by a £2.8 million grant from the National Lottery and aims to improve the visibility and documentation of numerous sculptures. The completed catalog will be accessible at artuk.org. Similar digitalization projects are underway at the Uffizi Gallery, Kunsthaus Zurich, and France Collections 3D, while the Smithsonian has been digitizing its collection since 2013.