Last week the MakerBot team joined forces with artists to democratize famous works of art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These 3D designs are now on Thingiverse and ready to be 3D printed. For example, the marble lion statue pictured above dates from 400 B.C. and is now available in digital form on Thingiverse.

As art is being democraticized, meaning users can download and print their own editions of these classical pieces, we are already seeing derivative digital works of art. In the example below, Jean-Antoine Houdon’s Bather was placed in a bath tub and uploaded to Thingiverse.

While this is in early days, it is incredible to now have the raw works of art at our digital fingertips for new creation.

Via MakerBot blog.