What Is the Most Visited Art Museum in the World 2019?

It'due south official: Ai Weiwei is the world'south most pop artist. The Chinese dissident's travelling survey in Brazil—his start in the South American country and his largest exhibition to date—was a runaway hit and the highest-ranking show past a single artist in our company figures survey for 2019. More than 1.1 one thousand thousand people in total came to see the exhibition that started at Oca in São Paulo with stops in Belo Horizonte and Curitiba before landing at Centro Cultural Banco exercise Brasil's (CCBB's) space in Rio de Janeiro, where information technology was seen past 9,172 visitors a day (around 600,000 in total). Ai'southward greatest hits included his series of big-scale sculptures made from roots of the endangered Pequi Vinagreiro copse plant in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Sadly, the brandish became all the more than poignant confronting the backdrop of the fires that ravaged the Amazon rainforest last summer, peaking in August when the Rio testify opened. Speaking to The Fine art Newspaper in December, Ai said: "Roots are the last evidence of what we have: a sorry eulogy for man stupidity."

Ai's triumph helped Brazil and the CCBB secure the top iii positions in our 2019 attendance survey, Fine art's Almost Popular, which ranks shows by the number of visitors a day. Occupying the first and second spots is a free travelling exhibition that offered a behind-the-scenes wait at DreamWorks. Co-organised by the animation studio and Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Prototype, where information technology debuted in 2014, the 400-slice prove featured storyboards, concept drawings, paintings and maquettes for film favourites such as Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. A whopping xi,380 visitors a twenty-four hours went to it in Rio, while a further 9,277 daily saw information technology in Belo Horizonte. The CCBB terminal topped our survey in 2016 with another trio of shows, including one on Post-Impressionist masterpieces (nine,700 visitors a twenty-four hour period). The CCBB, which hosts gratuitous exhibitions at its 4 locations in Brazil, had about 5.6 million visitors in 2019—a 28% increase on 2018 and a 36% increase on 2017.

Ai Weiwei during the installation of his Roots exhibition at Oca do Parque Ibirapuera in São Paulo © Courtesy of Magnetoscopio

Nippon's enduring appetite for Western masters is shown past the success of the Tokyo Metropolitan Fine art Museum's exhibitions on Edvard Munch (8,931 visitors a twenty-four hours) and Gustav Klimt (vii,808), which claim fourth and fifth place overall in our survey. Numbers for the Munch show were bolstered by a tempera-and-oil on cardboard version of The Scream from 1910 that was given a rare ticket to travel from Oslo's Munch Museum, which, as we went to print, was nonetheless due to reopen this autumn in a new building. A travelling bear witness of Impressionist works from London's Courtauld Gallery was likewise a hit in Tokyo (3,802 a day)—although not equally pop as the version at Paris's Fondation Louis Vuitton (4,712).

But Japanese audiences also appreciate art created closer to habitation, judging by the daily total who turned up to the Tokyo National Museum to come across works that told the story of the Japanese Buddhist monk who made To-ji Temple a centre for Shingon Esoteric Buddhism (7,697). All the same, the Nara National Museum still stages the most visited show in Japan with its annual display of treasures from the Shoso-in Temple. Although its 71st edition drew xiii,140 visitors a day (227,133 total) in but three weeks, the religious nature of the objects puts it in a class of its ain and so it is not included in our exhibition rankings.

Tutankhamum treasures drew 7,735 visitors a mean solar day to La Villette in Paris © Nicolas Krief

Tutankhamun took Paris by tempest with the arrival of a touring show billed every bit the concluding adventure to encounter the Boy King'due south grave goods before they return permanently to their new home in Cairo's One thousand Egyptian Museum, which is due to open later this yr. Some 7,735 visitors a twenty-four hours (ane.iv million overall) caught the blockbuster at the Grande Halle de la Villette, which featured everything from golden pharaonic flip flops to shabtis (funerary figurines) of every shape and size. It broke Paris's previous Tut record, set back in 1967, for an exhibition at the Petit Palais visited by 1.ii million people. The touring exhibition, which began at the California Science Heart in Los Angeles at the end of 2018 (2,379 visitors a twenty-four hours), has since travelled across the Channel to England, where we expect the London leg to break records in our 2020 survey.

Anniversaries e'er assist pull in the crowds and 2019 was chock-a-block with major milestones. The Louvre'southward Leonardo bonanza was the precious stone in the crown of exhibitions commemorating the quincentenary of the principal'due south death only considering it closed earlier this year, the tape 1.1 one thousand thousand who braved the crowds volition exist factored into our 2020 survey. Amidst other notable Leonardo celebrations were a unmarried-painting display of a loan from the Vatican at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (3,099 visitors a day) and a Great britain travelling show of drawings lent by The Queen. The Royal Collection declined to provide figures for its stops at The Queen's galleries at Buckingham Palace and Holyroodhouse so nosotros cannot quantify the tour's overall popularity, merely the turnout for smaller versions of the bear witness at Manchester Art Gallery (two,677) and Glasgow'south Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (i,409) demonstrate a healthy public involvement.

Peak 20 most popular exhibitions

Peak 20 exhibitions © The Fine art Newspaper

Visitors to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna more than than doubled to 1.8 million thank you to its blockbusting Bruegel show marking the 450th anniversary of the artist's expiry. Seen by 408,000 people (3,923 visitors a day), the exhibition bankrupt the museum's previous record: a 2005 brandish on the Spanish painter Francisco Goya (3,460). The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium capitalised on having the earth'due south second largest drove of Bruegel paintings by offer a series of initiatives to coincide with the anniversary, including digital experiences and a "Bruegel trail" throughout the Brussels museum. These projects, along with the museum's record-breaking Dalí and Magritte exhibition that finished in 2020, and then volition characteristic in our adjacent survey, contributed to an impressive 60% increment in the museum'southward attendance (1.ane million).

Museums in the Netherlands and across went all out to mark the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt's death. The Rijksmuseum'south dusting-off of all works past the Dutch primary in its drove contributed to a record year: 2.7 meg visited the Amsterdam museum, including 455,000 (3,922 a day) who went to All the Rembrandts. The Museo Nacional del Prado chose to honour Rembrandt with a bear witness that compared the Leiden-born artist's work with that of beau 17th-century heavyweights Velázquez and Vermeer (4,553). But despite being the most attended prove in Spain and coinciding with the Prado'southward 200th anniversary, the Madrid museum still managed to fall shy of its 2018 record attendance, of nigh 3.vii meg, by 175,000 visitors.

Last year was a stellar time for lunar-themed art, with museums honouring the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing with a surprising assortment of exhibitions. The Apollo's Muse photography show at the Met was seen by 3,038 a twenty-four hour period, while Kingdom of denmark's Louisiana Museum of Mod Fine art's exhibition—which asked visitors "to join the Louisana on a trip to the Moon" with its eclectic display of everything from Norman Foster's 3D-printed Moon base designs to space suits by the designer and professor Neri Oxman—was seen by 2,524 visitors a day. In total, nigh 780,000 punters flew to the Moon—a figure that would rise if we factored in shows that closed in 2020.

Peak ten most popular art museums

Top museums © The Fine art Newspaper; image cc

The Musée du Louvre once again tops our survey in terms of overall attendance with 9.half dozen million visitors, 600,000 less than its all-time record fix in 2018 but impressive nonetheless. Ongoing protests throughout the city likely contributed to four of Paris'south five most popular museums experiencing drops last twelvemonth except for the city's second most visited, the Musée d'Orsay, which had well-nigh 3.7 meg—an 11% increase on 2018.

The National Museum of China in Beijing retains second position overall with 7.iv million visitors, followed by the Vatican Museums (6.9 1000000), which places third for the first time. It swapped places with the Metropolitan Museum of Art (6.5 million), which is downwardly from the nearly seven million who graced its halls in 2018 when information technology hosted its blockbusting Costume Institute show Heavenly Bodies (1.vii meg; 10,919 daily) at both its 5th Avenue and Cloisters locations.

With half dozen.two 1000000 visitors, 400,000 up from the previous year, the British Museum (BM) reclaims its title as the UK's most visited museum later on being ousted from the top spot past Tate Modern in 2018. Its almost attended show of 2019 was Manga (one,920), which was more popular than a complimentary show of the BM's collection of Rembrandt drawings (1,823).

Just it is Tate Modern and Tate Britain that have the nearly cause to gloat as both had a record yr. Tate Modern welcomed 6.1 million visitors—230,000 more than in 2018—despite none of its shows ranking as high as its 2018 Picasso exhibition (2,802 visitors a solar day); its top two exhibitions of 2019 were its Pierre Bonnard display (2,388) and Christian Marclay's The Clock (one,890), which attracted more visitors in London than it did at its 2012 showing at New York's Museum of Modern Art (1,547). Effectually 1.8 million headed to Tate Britain: it had a 536,000 uptick in visitors—422,000 of whom turned upwardly for the popular Van Gogh and Uk exhibition.

Last yr's 35-day government shutdown in Washington, DC had a significant impact on visits to the city's publicly funded museums, which closed for well-nigh of January. Overall visitorship to both the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, which share a building, was downwards by 604,000. The Renwick Gallery was down by 500,000 and the National Gallery of Art by 330,000. The Hirshhorn, however, bucked the trend to welcome 891,000 visitors—nearly ten,000 more in 2018.

The Art Newspaper has published its annual attendance survey in some form for more than 2 decades. While the data collected for this twelvemonth'southward report reflects the usual fluctuations in visitor numbers across museums worldwide, the catamenia covered predates the widespread furnishings of the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Information technology is worth noting, too, that some museums in Asia and Italy were not able to take part in the survey as they were closed during our research period. We would similar to thank the press officers at museums worldwide for their assist. The outbreak, combined with an increased awareness within the art world of the scale of the climate crisis, are leading to a change in thinking nearly the role of museums and exhibition-going. Next year nosotros may detect that Art's Most Popular is measured more past digital appointment than footfall.

Methodology

• All of the data used was supplied by the institutions concerned.
• Some institutions offer a number of exhibitions for a unmarried ticket: these are shown as one entry.
• Exhibitions that were free to visit—ie, neither the museum nor the show had an entry fee— are indicated with an asterisk (*).
• The daily figures are calculated automatically by our database, which computes the number of days for which an exhibition was open using the post-obit formula: total number of days between start engagement and end date, divided by vii, multiplied past the number of days a calendar week the institution is open, minus infrequent closures.

• For The Art Newspaper's full Art'south Virtually Popular visitor figures survey, come across our April upshot. To read a selection online, see Art's Most Pop 2020

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Source: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/03/31/arts-most-popular-here-are-2019s-most-visited-shows-and-museums

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