The most visited museum in 2008 was the Louvre. Look at his treasures were 8 and a half million people. But the most popular exhibition last year were held in Japan

Recently the British newspaper The Art Newspaper has published a list of museums, which last year attracted the largest number of visitors. First place predictably won the Paris Louvre. In 2008, at his treasures came to see 8.5 million people. In second place - the British Museum in London (5.93 million visitors). In last year's ranking of the Louvre has also served as the first place, and the British Museum is on the fourth.

Third place in the list belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington (4.96 million visitors). It is followed by the London Tate Modern gallery (4.95 million) and the New York Metropolitan Museum (4.82 million). Sixth place the Vatican museums, which attracted 4.44 million people.

In the Top-10 list includes only European and American museums. At the seventh spot in the London National Gallery (4.38 million visitors), followed by Paris Orsay museum (3 million). Not far behind him Municipal Museum of Modern Art in Paris (2.98 million), and closes the top ten of the New York Museum of Modern Art (2.9 million).

In the general classification the most popular museums include the three Russian institutions: the State Hermitage Museum (14 th place, 2.36 million visitors), the Moscow Kremlin Museums (21 th place, 1.73 million) and the State Tretyakov Gallery (32 th place, 1.39 million).

The Art Newspaper has also published a list of the most popular exhibitions in 2008. Here the first two places were taken by events that occurred in Japan. The largest number of visitors attracted 60 th annual exhibition of treasures from Seso-in temple Todaydzi sponsored by the National Museum of the city of Nara. Admire the beautiful things that once belonged to the emperor to this (VIII century) there is an average of 17 916 people per day. Second place in the ranking belongs to the exhibition «National Treasure Temple Yakusidzi», held at Tokyo National Museum (12 762 visitors a day). Closes the top three exposition «Images in the night», which took place in Paris' Grand Palais (10 357 visitors a day). The exhibition can be seen the video and installation on the end of the French presidency of the European Union.

In Russia the most popular was the exhibition «Samurai. Treasures of the military aristocracy of Japan », shown in the Moscow Kremlin Museums. Every day see it come 2 189 people.

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova

Source: theartnewspaper.com , bloomberg.com ,, artinvestment.ru