A pioneering website aiming to join together as many as possible works of art kept in French museums and then making them available online to the public is in the making courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

Still in progress, JocondeLab incorporates the whole collections of the French National Museums in a digital catalogue, in fact, the 300, 000 detailed records retrieved from the Joconde Catalogue. True to a vision that every culture has to be academically respected, info on these records are to be given not only in French, or alternatively, English but in 14 different languages, four of which mirror diverse cultures within France and Spain. The languages are French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Catalan, Basque, Breton and Occitan.

According to its founders, the result of an “an experiment”, JocondeLab website demonstrates how the interweaving of linked cultural data and multilingualism can enhance ergonomics and interactivity, making a signicifant contribution to world culture but also linguistic diversity.