The world’s 100 most popular museums last year have been revealed, with the release of visitor figures for 2021. Ten UK museums made the list, which you can find here.
On the whole, the figures show a slight bounce-back. The Art Newspaper found that from the 200 museums they sampled, 72 per cent saw an increase in foot traffic compared to 2020. Hopefully, this is indicative of a proper bounce-back in 2022 with Covid restrictions seemingly sentenced to the rear-view mirror.
Of museums forced to close for at least one day in 2021, the average institution spent 106 days shuttered up, compared to 145 in 2020. It was closer in Europe, which was hit hardest by restrictions in early 2021. British museums were closed for an average of 139 days last year, while in Germany it was 138, and in the Netherlands, 150.
The British Museum was the most popular museum in the UK, seeing 1.3 million visitors. This was an improvement on the previous year, but still paled in comparison to the north of 6 million who came through the doors in 2019.
London’s Tate Modern came second, ahead of Somerset House in third. Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland had a good year, registering over 660,000 visitors – a 49 per cent rise from 2020. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield was the only other UK museum outside London to make the top 100.
Although none made that illustrious list, some of the biggest visitor jumps in the UK compared to 2020 were: Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum, up 82 per cent; Gateshead’s Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, up 57 per cent; and Tate St Ives, rising 43 per cent.
At the other end of the spectrum was the National Gallery. It saw 709,000 visitors last year, a drop of 41 per cent compared to 2020 and 88 per cent to 2019. It cited a lack of major exhibitions and international visitors for the poor performance.
Unsurprisingly, the Musée du Louvre topped the list. Two Russian institutions rounded out the podium, beating New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was the most visited in America.
