# CultureBot: A Framework for Retrieval-Augmented Exploration of Cultural Heritage Data

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16435 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.16435/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 24 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Oct 2026.

## Placed in

- Retrieval-augmented generation

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Dense Passage Retrieval for Open-Domain Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04906/) (2020)
- [Self-RAG: Learning to Retrieve, Generate, and Critique through Self-Reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11511/) (2023)
- [From Local to Global: A Graph RAG Approach to Query-Focused Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16130/) (2024)
- [ArCo: the Italian Cultural Heritage Knowledge Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02840/) (2019)
- [CypherBench: Towards Precise Retrieval over Full-scale Modern Knowledge Graphs in the LLM Era](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18702/) (2024)
- [Open WebUI: An Open, Extensible, and Usable Interface for AI Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.02546/) (2025)
- [IICONGRAPH: improved Iconographic and Iconological Statements in Knowledge Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.00048/) (2024)
- [Digital Collections Explorer: An Open-Source, Multimodal Viewer for Searching Digital Collections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.00961/) (2025)
- [Achieving interoperability between the CARARE schema for monuments and sites and the Europeana Data Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1306.2869/) (2013)
- [CHAD-KG: A Knowledge Graph for Representing Cultural Heritage Objects and Digitisation Paradata](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13276/) (2025)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Natural Language Art Provenance Searches in the Getty Provenance Index](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19093/) (2025)
- [Co-creation of AI technology, empowering curators of cultural heritage information and guarding research commons](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.28481/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Digital cultural heritage collections encode rich relations among objects, places, periods, providers, images, and source institutions, yet users typically access them through keyword search and faceted browsing. We present CULTUREBOT, an interactive framework for natural-language exploration of cultural heritage collections that combines knowledge-graph-guided retrieval, lexical-semantic retrieval, and source-linked generation. CULTUREBOT maps user queries to structured catalogue relations, enriches retrieved records with textual evidence, and generates answers that link back to the underlying repository records. We instantiate the framework on 81,852 SearchCulture records and release an online demonstration. In an expert evaluation involving six cultural-heritage specialists, 55 persona-grounded queries, and 250 evaluations, the graph-guided system was rated significantly higher than two general-purpose assistants and a non-graph ablation, with the largest gains in evidence grounding, diversity, reasoning, and completeness. These results support graph-guided retrieval as a practical way to expose the relational structure of cultural collections through conversational access while preserving links to catalogue evidence.