Earlier this week the Ashmolean Museum announced the acquisition of one of the major works of British Romantic artist John Millais. The 1854 portrait of John Ruskin had previously been in private hands.

Within minutes of becoming aware of the acquisition, we here at Art Authority were able to change the location of the work within our database, and add a link to an article describing the acquisition. So, the same day as the announcement, Art Authority users browsing Millais works, or looking at works from the Romantic period (perhaps through “shuffle”) or even coming across the work through an “Art Like This” search, would get the correct and enhanced information. And Art Alert users, checking out what art they could view in the Oxford area, would see that the work is available at the Ashmolean.

Think how this type of information would have propagated in the pre-digital art world (or, actually, how it will propagate in the remaining part of that world). Catalogs would have to be changed. New revisions of art history textbooks would have to published. Professors would have to change their slides. And the information would still remain inaccurate (will still remain inaccurate) in many places for years if not decades.

But in the new world where art is digital, the change is nearly instantaneous. Art Authority’s president and founder, Alan Oppenheimer, has been giving talks on the many advantages when “Art Goes Digital,” most recently at Macworld/iWorld and Cal State East Bay. It looks like there will need to be a new bullet item added to those talks: the near-immediate update of information when things change!

(Art Authority is of course only one example of art going digital. But we’re proud to say that we even beat Wikipedia with the updated information!)

The FBI announced yesterday that it had made significant progress towards solving the greatest art theft of all time: the 1990 heist of 13 major works from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. 23 years to the day later, the FBI is definitely getting closer, with the help of a $5 million award “for information that leads directly to the recovery of all of our items in good condition.”

This is where you and Art Authority can come in. By running the app on an iPad with a retina display, you can view images of these works in as much detail as just about anyone else in the world; perhaps even as much detail as the FBI themselves. Who knows, maybe there’s a missed clue there somewhere. Regardless, you can certainly enjoy some great and historic works of art while dreaming of riches at the same time.

Stolen works included in Art Authority in high resolution are:

• Degas, La Sortie de Pesage
• Govaert Flinck, Landscape with an Obelisk, 1638
• Manet, Chez Tortoni, 1878–1880
• Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, c. 1634
• Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633
• Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black, 1633
• Vermeer, The Concert, c. 1664

Now that our new Art Alert app is out, we’ve been getting questions about the differences between it and our award-winning Art Authority app (“Best iPad reference app of 2011″). The LA Times recently called Art Alert a “companion app” to Art Authority, and the two do work best together. But each app is great on its own too.

Here’s the simplest way to look at things:

Art Authority brings the world’s best art to you, and Art Alert brings you to the world’s best art.

Here are the main similarities between to two:

• Both use the Art Authority database of nearly 60,000 paintings and sculptures, 1000+ western artists and 500+ museums and other art locations. 
• Both present that artwork full-screen and in scrolling thumbnail arrays, with detailed captions (title, artist, date, etc.)

And here are the main differences:

• Art Authority is a very general app for exploring, learning about, and enjoying art and art history. Art Alert is much more specific, focused on helping you find, preview and get to that art in the real world.
• Art Alert has an easy-to-use, map-based user interface. Art Authority, especially on the iPad, has a “visually dazzling” virtual museum-based user interface with a wide variety of features.
• Art Authority displays works from “Private Collections” and unknown and obscure locations, as well as the world’s top museums and other locations that Art Alert displays works from.
• Art Authority additional features include access by period, artist name, title, subject and even “Art Like This.” Also automated slide shows with Ken Burns motion effect, highlights, shuffle, period overviews, and Prints on Demand (some of these features are specific to the iPad version).
• Art Alert’s additional features help you get to the real art in the real world. Things like directions, search by city or country, and the ability to call a location directly on your iPhone.
• Art Authority provides information on individual works of art, artists, and locations. Art Alert provides details on location, above and beyond those provided by Art Authority.
• Art Authority downloads and displays a retina-quality version of the work where available, through our “smArt resolution” technology.

Art Alert can automatically run Art Authority if you have Art Authority installed. Just hit the “View this collection in Art Authority” button. You can then use Art Authority to explore related context, get more detail on works, view slide shows, etc. The best of both worlds!

Now that Art Alert (“Find great art wherever you find yourself”) has been out for a few days, we’re starting to get questions about the number of works it can display at each location, or in each city or country. Or the number of different art sites in each city or country. Etc. 

You can actually get a pretty good feel for some of these details through the number and density of pins in the initial map of the world displayed by Art Alert, or by zooming in on a particular country or city of interest.

We’ve also said that the Art Authority database, on which Art Alert is based, contains nearly 60,000 works of art, over 1000 artists and over 500 museums and other art locations (546 at this moment, to be precise).

Additionally, we thought we’d post some other useful numbers here. We’re of course always adding works and locations to the database, so this is just a snapshot of the way things are now, but we still think it’s very interesting and perhaps a good guide to where you might want your next trip to be.

Art Alert Top Countries by Number of Works

1. USA 5592 works, 181 locations
2. Italy 4585 works, 111 locations (includes the Vatican)
3. Russia 3154 works, 14 locations
4. France 3126 works, 47 locations
5. UK 2669 works, 36 locations
6. Germany 1970 works, 29 locations
7. Spain 1121 works, 16 locations
8. Netherlands 1076 works, 17 locations
9. Belgium 613 works, 12 locations
10. Austria 606 works, 9 locations