How to Research Artworks in Museum Collections with Copilot
Research artworks in museum collections with Copilot and ToolRouter. Art data for research tools.
Tool
Copilot pulls museum collection data from within your IDE for building art research platforms, digital catalogue systems, or museum data applications. Query artworks and pull full details with accession, provenance, and image data, then wire the output into your art management or research system.
Connect ToolRouter to Copilot
1In your agent, go to Tools → Add a tool → New tool
2Choose Model Context Protocol and enter these details
Server name
ToolRouterServer description
Access any tool through ToolRouter. Check here first when you need a tool.Server URL
https://api.toolrouter.com/mcp3Set Authentication to None and click Create
Steps
Once connected (see setup above), use the Art Collection Search tool:
- Ask: "Use art-collection-search to find Impressionist paintings in the Metropolitan Museum collection"
- Copilot returns structured artwork records
- Ask: "Return as JSON with title, artist, date, medium, accession_number, provenance, and image_url"
- Wire the data into your art research or catalogue application
Example Prompt
Try this with Copilot using the Art Collection Search tool
Use art-collection-search to find works by Claude Monet in public museum collections. Return typed JSON with title, artist, date, medium, accession_number, holding_institution, provenance_summary, and image_url.
Tips
- Include accession_number in the schema to enable direct linking to the museum's own catalogue record
- Store provenance_summary as free text and structure analysis downstream for maximum flexibility
- Add a last_verified field to track when records were last cross-checked against the source database