The world’s 100 most-visited museums recorded 141 million admissions in 2022, twice the number of the previous year, but most continue to suffer from the impact of the pandemic, down from 2019 figures, according to statistics.
This influx was almost three times higher than that registered in 2020, but it is still far from the 230 million verified visitors in 2019the year before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, indicate statistics collected by the international publication The Art Newspaper.
After two years of restrictions and uncertainties caused by Covid-19, 2022 has been the year in which most visitors have been able to see national or foreign exhibitions again, returning to the great museums in Paris, London, Rome and New York.
The Louvre Museum in Paris, which usually tops the list of the 100 most visited museums in the world, returned to that position, with around 7.7 million visitors in 2022, but still a fifth less than in 2019, pre-pandemic reference year. .
With an increase of 173% compared to 2021, the Louvre still has 20% fewer tickets compared to 2019, indicate the statistics of the study carried out annually by the international publication.
EITHER Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon —whose name was changed earlier this year to the Museu de Are Contemporânea Cultural Center of Belém— is the only Portuguese museum to appear on the list of the 100 most visited, having reached position 96, with 617,684 entries, 116% more than in 2021, but still 42% below 2019.
In Brazil, only the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, in Rio de Janeiro, managed to enter the list, in 33rd place, with 1,364,208 visitors.
In a similar situation was the Museo Nacional del Prado, in Madrid, Spain, which managed to reach 13th place on the list, with 2,456,724 entries, an increase of 109%, but registering a drop of 30% compared to the previous year. to the pandemic.
In second place in the list of the 100 most visited he stayed vatican museumsin Italy, with 5,080,866, and the third and fourth place went to museums in London, in the United Kingdom, according to the same study.
The British Museum has 4,097,253 visits, 209% more than in 2021, but 34% less than in 2019, and is followed by the Tate Modern, with 3,883,160, 236% more than in 2021, but 36% less in the year before the appearance of covid-19.
The global recovery is uneven, underlines the article in The Art Newspaper: in fifth place is the National Museum of Korea, in Seoul, visited by 3,411,381 people in 2022, 170% more than the previous year and, exceptionally, in list, with an increase of 2% compared to 2019.
Other exceptions —17 known out of a hundred— are the Russian National Museum, in Saint Petersburg, with 2,651,688 entries, 17% more than in 2021 and 11% more than in 2019, or the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in the United States, which attracted 2,190,440 visitors in 2022, 89% more than in 2021, and already 10% more than in 2019.
However, the Hermitage Museum, also in Saint Petersburg, which received 2,812,913 visits last year, 71% more, 43% less than in 2019, the Kremlin Museums, in Moscow, registered 861,341 visitors, an increase 49%, but still 72%. below the pre-pandemic benchmark.
In the United States, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with 3,208,832, won 64% more tickets than in 2021, but 34% less than in 2019; in Washington, the National Gallery of Art received 3,256,433 visitors, the most visited in the country—, an increase of 91%, but still 20% less compared to the pre-pandemic figures.
In China, due to the very restrictive policy to deal with the pandemic, the negative impact on museum visits of the country was high.
An exception in Chinese territory was the new M+ Museum, in Hong Kong, inaugurated in November 2021 and closed for four months in 2022, which managed to attract more than two million visitors, entering the 20 most visited museums in the world.
In Greece, in Athens, the Acropolis Museum received 1,451,727 visitors, 165% more than in 2021, but 18% less than in 2019.
In Portugal, the museums, monuments and national palaces recovered almost two million visitors in 2022, after the losses during the pandemic, adding a total of 3,339,416 tickets, according to statistics from the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, leaving, however, also below the approximately four to five million, reached before the pandemic, between 2017 and 2019.
Source: Observadora
