The Museum of Stolen Art from ziv schneider on Vimeo.

The real promise for virtual reality lies in visiting places that don't exist, or perhaps no longer exist.  Take Ziv Schneider's new virtual gallery The Museum Of Stolen Art for example, the first virtual reality museum dedicated to art theft. The gallery offers visitors the chance to see famous works that have gone missing and are yet to be retrieved - an exhibition that can't exist in the physical world.

Current exhibits include Famous Stolen Paintings, the Looting of Afghanistan and the Looting of Iraq. While exploring the space, visitors are accompanied by a tour guide explaining the histories of the missing pieces, drawing awareness to the subject of cultural theft which often comes hand in hand with war and conflict. As visitors place on their headsets they are instructed, "for looted art go to your left, for art theft to your right". Not only is the museum intended to educate but it hopes to inspire a social conscious, asking users to contact the international police if they are to come across any of the art in the real world.

A virtual museum with a footing in the real world is an idea recently explored in the recent Protein Travel Report, where we asked to what degree can virtual reality let us explore the world without leaving the house?