Louvre’s 8.5 Million Visitors Keep It as No. 1 Museum Worldwide

By Farah Nayeri


March 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London were the world’s most visited museums last year, drawing 8.5 million and 5.93 million people respectively, the Art Newspaper said in an annual ranking.

The Louvre was also in first place in the 2007 ranking, when the British Museum was in fourth position.
This time, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. came third, with 4.96 million visitors, followed by London’s Tate Modern (4.95 million) and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (4.82 million), according to the Art Newspaper, which got its figures from each museum.
The Vatican Museums ranked sixth (4.44 million).

The top 10 slots were taken up by European and U.S. institutions. Japan’s National Art Center, Tokyo was 13th on the list, with 2.47 million visitors.

The Art Newspaper also listed the 2008 exhibitions that attracted the highest number of daily visitors. Two Tokyo shows snagged the top spots: the “60th Annual Exhibition of Shoso-in Treasures” at the Nara National Museum (with a daily total of 17,926 visitors) and “National Treasures from Yakushi-ji Temple” at the Tokyo National Museum (with 12,762 viewers per day).

To contact the writer on this story: Farah Nayeri in London at Farahn@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 29, 2009 19:00 EDT