Shutterstock, Inc. has acquired of over 700,000 images from two prominent photo collections: The Art Archive and The Kobal Collection. Both collections, previously held by UK-based The Picture Desk, are now available to Shutterstock Premier customers globally.
"The Art Archive and Kobal Collection immortalize some of the finest works of art, ancient historic events and over 100 years of iconic cinematic legends," said Ben Pfeifer, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Shutterstock. "These collections are the cornerstone of our archival art and entertainment offering and include images ranging from the Mona Lisa to vintage Marilyn Monroe. They represent a unique wealth of rare images which are invaluable for book publishing, documentaries or creative projects."
The world-renowned Kobal Collection, originally conceived from one man's passion, preserves irreplaceable behind the scenes stills, portraits, and original posters issued by movie studios since the early days of cinema. The archive covers over a century of cinema from the very first silent films to today's latest Hollywood releases and international productions. Kobal Collection's portrait collection is famed for personifying the great romantic leads and the dazzling icons of the past such as Grace Kelly, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando and Richard Burton.
The Art Archive is a rare and extensive selection of expertly photographed images gathered over many years from the world's leading fine art galleries, museums, and private collections. The artistic breadth of the collection includes thousands of years' worth of ancient civilizations, paintings, historical figures, architecture, religion and science. Covering every aspect of the creative arts and world culture from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back to 2500 BC to Buzz Aldrin's first steps on the moon in the 20th century, the famous and the infamous are all represented in this collection.
The Picture Desk archive on Shutterstock will introduce over 50 years' worth of careful image curation to journalists, creatives, educators and students all over the world who are searching for high-quality historical content.