About 300 pieces from the Central Academy of Fine Arts' art museum have been published in an online exhibition developed jointly with Google Arts & Culture, featuring iconic works of Chinese modern art by master painters such as Xu Beihong.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Each month, more than 500 million art-related searches are made on Google's search engine.

And Sood hopes that his arts and culture project will bring the world of art to people's fingertips.

When they started the art project in 2011, the team intentionally chose museums from Asia, Latin America and Africa to work with initially, because museums in Britain and the United States already had a great deal of international exposure, he explains.

And Google is not the only tech company helping museums to go digital. Many internet companies and startups in China are already involved. For example, Chinese internet giant Baidu has been working with museums to set up online shows over the past few years, including the Palace Museum and the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, home to China's biggest collection of Buddhist art.

"We're really happy to see that so many people have joined us to help spread art online," says Sood.