The Prado comes to Brooklyn: ‘Masterpieces’, the VR experience with Las Meninas and Goya, makes its U.S. debut

Spain’s national museum, the Prado, arrives in New York — not with crates carrying the masterpieces, but with virtual-reality headsets. As USA Art News reports, the immersive experience “Masterpieces: A Virtual Experience of the Museo del Prado” opened on October 1 at Powerhouse Arts, in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighbourhood, marking the American debut of the project, which is expected to stay open until December 20, 2026.

Visitors travel for about 30 minutes inside five icons of the Madrid collection: “The Sense of Sight” (1617) by Rubens and Brueghel, “Las Meninas” (1656) by Velázquez, “Venus and Adonis” (around 1580) by Veronese, “Witches’ Sabbath” (1820–1823) by Goya and the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (1490–1500) by Bosch. Each canvas is transformed from a flat surface into a three-dimensional theatrical environment, with an original score and a narration that draws the viewer into the world of the work. Many of these works, according to USA Art News, rarely or never leave the Prado because of conservation restrictions — so virtual reality is one of the few ways to experience them up close outside Spain.

The project, developed by Acciona Cultura in collaboration with the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, is built around a distinctive narrative: everything is seen through the eyes of an imaginary security guard on his last shift before retirement. The choice, according to USA Art News, shifts the focus from academic interpretation to a deeply personal connection with art. The selection of works was explained by the Prado’s senior curator for Flemish and Northern painting, Alejandro Vergara, who says the five works “have been widely known and admired for centuries”, and each teaches us something different — from Spanish court painting to Bosch, already beloved in his lifetime, and Goya at his most intense, amid dreams, fears and the shadows of the human condition.

The experience is not unknown to the world: it has previously been shown in Madrid, Buenos Aires and Hong Kong, while in Shanghai it drew more than 40,000 visitors — so many that the organisers extended it by a year. The Brooklyn presentation is accompanied by a public programme: an opening party with DJ April Hunt on Saturday, October 3, a staff art exhibition and public talks on art, technology and access to museums.