Art Institute of Chicago - Is an Artwork On View Right Now, and in Which Gallery? (public API)

import json, re, time
 
# (title, artist) pairs to check; the title is matched exactly (case-insensitive), the artist by substring.
WORKS = [
    ("Water Lilies", "Monet"),
    ("Nighthawks", "Hopper"),
    ("American Gothic", "Wood"),
    ("Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare", "Monet"),
]
API = "https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/"
FIELDS = "id,title,artist_title,artist_display,date_display,main_reference_number,is_on_view,gallery_title,gallery_id,on_loan_display,updated_at,timestamp"
AIC_UA = "browser-harness domain skill (https://github.com/browser-use/browser-harness)"  # courtesy header the API docs ask for
PAUSE = 1.0  # docs: no more than one request per second; anonymous limit is 60 per minute
 
def on_api_tab():
    """fetch() runs same-origin from a logged-out api.artic.edu tab (the API docs page). Reuse it if already there."""
    try:
        if js("location.origin") == "https://api.artic.edu":
            return
    except Exception:
        pass
    new_tab("https://api.artic.edu/docs/")
    wait_for_load()
    if "Art Institute" not in (js("document.title") or ""):
        raise RuntimeError(f"api.artic.edu did not serve its docs (title {js('document.title')!r}): stop, do not retry around it")
 
# js() gives up after a few seconds, so start the fetch, then poll for it.
START_JS = """(() => { window.__aic = window.__aic || {}; const id = String(Math.random()).slice(2); window.__aic[id] = null;
  fetch(%s, {credentials: 'omit', headers: {'AIC-User-Agent': %s}})
    .then(async r => { window.__aic[id] = {status: r.status, left: r.headers.get('x-ratelimit-remaining'), text: await r.text()}; })
    .catch(e => { window.__aic[id] = {status: 0, left: null, text: String(e)}; });
  return id; })()"""
POLL_JS = """(() => { const v = window.__aic[%s]; if (v) delete window.__aic[%s]; return v; })()"""
 
def get_json(url, tries=3, timeout=60):
    """GET url from inside the tab -> parsed JSON. Backs off on 429/5xx, otherwise raises, so an error never looks like 'not found'."""
    for attempt in range(tries):
        rid = json.dumps(js(START_JS % (json.dumps(url), json.dumps(AIC_UA))))
        t0 = time.time()
        while (r := js(POLL_JS % (rid, rid))) is None:
            if time.time() - t0 > timeout:
                raise RuntimeError(f"{url}: no answer after {timeout}s")
            time.sleep(0.3)
        time.sleep(PAUSE)
        if r["status"] == 200:
            get_json.left = r["left"]
            return json.loads(r["text"])
        if r["status"] not in (0, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504) or attempt == tries - 1:
            raise RuntimeError(f"{url}: HTTP {r['status']} {' '.join(r['text'].split())[:200]!r}; stopping")
        time.sleep(60 if r["status"] == 429 else 5)  # the anonymous limit is per minute; a dead tab or 5xx retries sooner
 
def q(s):
    return js(f"encodeURIComponent({json.dumps(s)})")
 
on_api_tab()
for title, artist in WORKS:
    s = get_json(API + f"artworks/search?q={q(title + ' ' + artist)}&fields={FIELDS}&limit=10")
    hits = [a for a in s["data"] if (a["title"] or "").strip().lower() == title.lower()
            and artist.lower() in (a["artist_title"] or a["artist_display"] or "").lower()]
    print(f"\n{title} ({artist}): search total {s['pagination']['total']}, exact title+artist matches in top 10: {len(hits)}")
    for h in hits:
        # The search index can lag; re-read the record itself for the current values.
        a = get_json(API + f"artworks/{h['id']}?fields={FIELDS}")["data"]
        where = "not on view"
        if a["is_on_view"]:
            g = get_json(API + f"galleries/{a['gallery_id']}?fields=id,title,number,floor,is_closed")["data"] if a["gallery_id"] else {}
            where = f"ON VIEW in {a['gallery_title']} (floor {g.get('floor')}, gallery is_closed={g.get('is_closed')})"
        print(f"  {a['id']}  {a['title']}, {a['date_display']}  {(a['artist_display'] or 'artist unknown').splitlines()[0]}  [{a['main_reference_number']}]")
        loan = re.sub(r"<[^>]+>", "", a["on_loan_display"] or "")  # HTML fragment
        print(f"    {where}" + (f"  loan: {loan}" if loan else ""))
        print(f"    record updated {a['updated_at']}; search index copy {h['timestamp']}, search said on_view={h['is_on_view']} {h['gallery_title']}")
        print(f"    https://www.artic.edu/artworks/{a['id']}")
print("\nrate limit left this minute:", get_json.left)

 
Water Lilies (Monet): search total 133165, exact title+artist matches in top 10: 1
  16568  Water Lilies, 1906  Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)  [1933.1157]
    ON VIEW in Gallery 243 (floor 2, gallery is_closed=False)
    record updated 2026-11-03T15:15:09-06:00; search index copy 2026-11-05T22:20:21-06:00, search said on_view=True Gallery 243
    https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16568
 
Nighthawks (Hopper): search total 133165, exact title+artist matches in top 10: 1
  111628  Nighthawks, 1942  Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967)  [1942.51]
    ON VIEW in Gallery 262 (floor 2, gallery is_closed=False)
    record updated 2026-10-22T16:24:57-05:00; search index copy 2026-11-05T23:39:12-06:00, search said on_view=True Gallery 262
    https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111628
 
American Gothic (Wood): search total 133165, exact title+artist matches in top 10: 1
  6565  American Gothic, 1930  Grant Wood (American, 1891–1942)  [1930.934]
    ON VIEW in Gallery 263 (floor 2, gallery is_closed=False)
    record updated 2026-10-22T21:41:21-05:00; search index copy 2026-11-05T22:13:37-06:00, search said on_view=True Gallery 263
    https://www.artic.edu/artworks/6565
 
Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (Monet): search total 133165, exact title+artist matches in top 10: 1
  16571  Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877  Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)  [1933.1158]
    not on view  loan: On loan to Nationalmuseum in Stockholm for To the Sea! Coastal Tourism and the Visual Arts
    record updated 2026-11-06T03:32:44-06:00; search index copy 2026-11-06T03:32:44-06:00, search said on_view=False None
    https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16571
 
rate limit left this minute: 48

UA='AIC-User-Agent: browser-harness domain skill (https://github.com/browser-use/browser-harness)'
API=https://api.artic.edu/api/v1
# Elasticsearch filter instead of q=: only works whose title has the phrase AND whose artist matches
curl -sS --fail -G -H "$UA" "$API/artworks/search" \
  --data-urlencode 'query[bool][must][0][match_phrase][title]=water lilies' \
  --data-urlencode 'query[bool][must][1][match][artist_title]=monet' \
  --data-urlencode 'fields=id,title,artist_title,date_display,is_on_view,gallery_title,gallery_id' \
  --data-urlencode 'limit=20' | python3 -c '
import json, sys
d = json.load(sys.stdin)
print("matches:", d["pagination"]["total"], "| api version", d["info"]["version"])
for a in d["data"]:
    print(" ", a["id"], a["title"], a["date_display"], "|", a["artist_title"], "|",
          "on view, " + a["gallery_title"] if a["is_on_view"] else "not on view")
'
sleep 1
curl -sS --fail -H "$UA" "$API/artworks/16568?fields=id,title,is_on_view,gallery_title,gallery_id,on_loan_display,updated_at" | python3 -c '
import json, sys; a = json.load(sys.stdin)["data"]; print("record:", a)'
sleep 1
curl -sS --fail -H "$UA" "$API/galleries/2147479703?fields=title,number,floor,is_closed" | python3 -c '
import json, sys; print("gallery:", json.load(sys.stdin)["data"])'
sleep 1
curl -sS -o /dev/null -w 'unknown id: HTTP %{http_code}\n' -H "$UA" "$API/artworks/999999999"
sleep 1
curl -sS -o /dev/null -w 'limit=101: HTTP %{http_code}\n' -H "$UA" "$API/artworks/search?q=monet&fields=id&limit=101"

matches: 3 | api version 1.16
  16568 Water Lilies 1906 | Claude Monet | on view, Gallery 243
  87088 Water Lily Pond 1900 | Claude Monet | on view, Gallery 243
  97933 Water Lily Pond 1917–19 | Claude Monet | on view, Gallery 243
record: {'id': 16568, 'title': 'Water Lilies', 'is_on_view': True, 'on_loan_display': None, 'gallery_title': 'Gallery 243', 'gallery_id': 2147479703, 'updated_at': '2026-11-03T15:15:09-06:00'}
gallery: {'title': 'Gallery 243', 'is_closed': False, 'number': '243', 'floor': '2'}
unknown id: HTTP 404
limit=101: HTTP 403