---
name: cultural-heritage-3d-asset-research
description: Find downloadable museum/open-cultural-heritage 3D scans and return exact asset/download URLs, rights/licenses, formats, metadata, and thumbnails/screenshots.
---

# 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.