Most popular global exhibitions published for 2012 4 Apr 2013

The Art Newspaper has published its annual account of the most visited art exhibitions globally.  Rank is determined by the total number of visitors per day.  The most popular was ‘Masterpieces from the Mauritshuis’ at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum with 10,573 visitors each day, followed by shows in Rio de Janeiro, St Petersburg and Washington.  Brazil is seeing a renaissance in art gallery attendance on the back of an economic boom.  The David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy was fifth in the list attracting 7,512 visitors each day. 

Tate Modern dominates the ‘Big Ticket’ list – shows where the ticket also includes entrance to other attractions.  Their Tino Sehgal, Tanks: Art in Action and Tacita Dean shows are the top three.

In terms of overall attendance of an art venue, London museums are strongly represented: the British Museum is third (5,575,946) after the Louvre (9,720,260) and Museum of Metropolitan Art (6,115,881), Tate Modern (5,304,710) is fourth and the National Gallery (5,163,902) fifth.  Art Newspaper (article available with subscription only)