The Stolen Art Gallery – a VR experience that places you in a gallery of major works of art that have been stolen or are missing

I use my Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset almost every day to exercise using the awesome Supernatural fitness app. I also use it to play Beat Saber, and explore Google Street View with Wander.

This week, I used the headset to visit The Stolen Art Gallery, a VR exhibit of famous works of art that were either stolen or have gone missing. Created by Compass UOL, the app placed me in the center of a dark circular gallery surrounded by five works of art by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Manet, and Van Gogh.

Using a virtual smartwatch on my wrist, I was able to summon the visage of each artist to tell me the story of their painting and what happened to it. The paintings are reproduced in high-resolution, allowing me to bring my nose very close to the surface of the canvas to appreciate its fine detail. (And there were no virtual guards around to snap at me to move back.)

All in all, it was a pleasant and illuminating 30-minute experience. If you have a Quest, I highly recommend trying it out. If you don't, you can experience it with an iPhone or Android device.