cultural-heritage-3d-asset-research

Cultural Heritage 3D Asset Research

Use this skill when the user asks for downloadable 3D scans/models from museums or open cultural heritage repositories, especially when they need exact URLs, licensing, formats, thumbnails/screenshots, or suitability for web/Three.js/printing reuse.

Goals

• Prefer institutional or collection-backed sources over generic reposts.
• Return exact stable asset pages and, when available, API download endpoints rather than vague repository names.
• Verify license and reuse constraints from the asset metadata/page.
• Capture file formats or the exact object-part filenames when visible.
• Include thumbnail/screenshot URLs that resolve without login when available.
• Flag practical reuse concerns: noncommercial, no-derivatives, share-alike, auth-required signed downloads, high-poly geometry, or unknown original source format.

Workflow

1. Search broad, then repository/API-specific - Start with web searches for the subject and repository terms: "Hermes" "3D model" museum download, "Mercury Bust" "3D scan", site:myminifactory.com/object/3d-print "Head of Hermes", etc. - Search likely repositories directly: Sketchfab cultural heritage, MyMiniFactory/Scan the World, Smithsonian 3D, OpenHeritage3D, museum Sketchfab accounts, Europeana-style aggregators. - For Sketchfab, prefer the public API for structured metadata: https://api.sketchfab.com/v3/models/{uid}.

2. Use Sketchfab API metadata whenever possible - Public model metadata usually exposes: title, author, viewerUrl, embedUrl, isDownloadable, license object, vertex/face counts, and thumbnail images. - The stable download endpoint is https://api.sketchfab.com/v3/models/{uid}/download; it may require authentication and returns signed glTF/source archive URLs. - Do not claim a permanent CDN file URL unless actually retrieved; signed download URLs are temporary. - Pick the largest thumbnail by width × height from thumbnails.images.

3. Use MyMiniFactory/Scan the World pages for filenames and STL details - Web extraction can expose page metadata even when the live browser is blocked by bot checks. - Capture License, Object Parts, More Information, repository/place, and visible image URLs. - MyMiniFactory API may require auth; if blocked, report the stable asset/download page and visible object-part filename rather than inventing a CDN download URL.

4. Report results in a reuse-first format - Put best commercial/open candidates first. - For each asset include:

   • title / repository or uploader / source institution
   • asset page URL
   • API metadata URL and download endpoint, if applicable
   • rights/license and plain-English constraint
   • file formats or object-part filename
   • thumbnail/screenshot URL
   • geometry counts if available
   • notes on suitability and caveats

5. Verify links and thumbnails when feasible - HEAD or request thumbnail URLs to ensure they resolve. - If a site uses Cloudflare/bot protection, rely on extracted content/API metadata and state only stable URLs verified through accessible endpoints.

Pitfalls

• Do not conflate asset page URL with direct file CDN URL. Many repositories issue signed, authenticated, or temporary download links.
• Do not treat “downloadable” as “commercially reusable”; license may be NC, ND, or SA.
• No-derivatives licenses can make remeshing, conversion, or redistributed web derivatives problematic.
• For web/Three.js, Sketchfab glTF downloads are usually more convenient than STL-only printable scans.
• For Scan the World assets, license and object-part filenames may appear in page text even when the API/browser is blocked.
• Avoid persisting negative claims like “site X does not work”; capture the fallback pattern: use public APIs, web extraction, and stable asset/download endpoints.

References

• references/hermes-mercury-head-bust-search.md — worked example of finding Hermes/Mercury head/bust scans across Sketchfab and MyMiniFactory/Scan the World, including license caveats and stable endpoint patterns.