SMK Denmark Collection Scraper

SMK Denmark Collection Scraper

Scrape the SMK Denmark collection by artist, search term, or public domain status, up to a million artworks per run. Every artwork comes with its title, artist, date, image URL, and public domain flag. No API key or login. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

SMK Open's collection API requires an API key and rate-limits you. This reads the public collection search directly, filtered by artist, query, image availability, or public domain status, and returns each match in one fixed schema. The Statens Museum for Kunst collection is one of Denmark's largest art collections, and this scraper makes it accessible for research, analysis, and app development.

Who uses it	What they scrape SMK Open for
Art historians	Which works by a given artist are in the SMK collection
Data journalists	How many public domain artworks are available for a topic
App developers	Building a gallery app with SMK images and metadata
Researchers	Analyzing the collection by date, artist, or subject
Educators	Finding public domain images for teaching materials

What it does

This Actor collects artworks from the SMK Denmark collection by search term, artist name, or public domain filter, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🔍 Search by term: free-text query across titles, artists, and descriptions.
• 🎨 Filter by artist: narrow results to a specific artist name.
• 🖼️ Image-only mode: return only works with a usable image URL.
• 📜 Public domain filter: restrict results to works you can reuse freely.
• 📊 Flat output: every artwork is one row, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with SMK Open data

📚 Build a research dataset.

An art historian runs the Actor with an artist name to compile every work by that artist in the SMK collection, then exports to CSV for analysis.

🖼️ Create a public domain gallery.

A developer filters by public domain and has image to collect freely reusable artworks, then uses the image URLs to build a web gallery.

📈 Track collection trends.

A data journalist runs the Actor with a broad query and analyzes the dates and artists to report on what the museum collects.

🎓 Prepare teaching materials.

An educator searches for a topic like 'landscape' with public domain only, then downloads the images for classroom use.

🔎 Audit an artist's presence.

A curator checks how many works by a contemporary artist are in the collection, using the artist filter and exporting the list.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Uses the public SMK Open search, no registration or key needed
Public domain flag	Know immediately if you can reuse the image
Image URLs	Direct links to the artwork images for download or display
Flexible filters	Combine query, artist, and flags to target exactly what you need
Scalable	Collect up to a million artworks per run

How it compares

No other Store actor targets SMK Open the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	SMK Denmark Collection Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When SMK Open changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a search term, an artist name, and the public domain or image flags, alone or together, and filters run as each artwork is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.85
1,000 results	$8.50
10,000 results	$85.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the SMK Denmark Collection Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to SMK Open through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/smk-denmark-collection-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your search term or artist name for typos. Also, if 'Has image' or 'Public domain only' is enabled, many works may be filtered out. Try disabling those filters.

The run is slow.

Reduce the maximum number of artworks or narrow your filters. The SMK Open search can be slow for broad queries.

Some artworks are missing image URLs.

Not all works in the collection have digitized images. Enable 'Has image' to skip those without images.

I get an error about too many requests.

The Actor includes automatic retries, but if you run many concurrent instances, you may hit rate limits. Reduce concurrency or run sequentially.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key for SMK Open?	No. This Actor uses the public collection search, so no API key or registration is required.
Can I filter by public domain?	Yes. Set the public domain flag to true to return only works that are in the public domain.
How do I get only artworks with images?	Enable the 'Has image' option. The Actor will skip works without a usable image URL.
What output formats are supported?	You can export the results to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the dataset.
Can I search by artist name?	Yes. Use the artist field to filter by a specific artist, such as 'Hammershoi'.
Is there a limit on how many artworks I can collect?	You can set the maximum number of artworks per run, up to one million.
Does the scraper return image URLs?	Yes, each artwork row includes the image URL when available.
Can I combine filters?	Yes. You can combine a search term, artist name, and the public domain or image flags in one run.
What is SMK Open?	SMK Open is the digital collection of Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark's national gallery.
Is the data in English or Danish?	The collection metadata is primarily in Danish, but some fields may have English translations.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Statens Museum for Kunst. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.