Most visited museums in the world with 141 million distant from pre-covid era

ANDThis influx was almost three times higher than that recorded in 2020, but it is still far from the 230 million visitors seen in 2019, the 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 was the year in which most visitors were 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, once again scored that position, with around 7.7 million visitors in 2022, but still a fifth less than in 2019, the year of reference in pre-pandemic.

With an increase of 173% compared to 2021, the Louvre still has 20% less entries compared to 2019, indicate the statistics of the study that the international publication carries out annually.

The Museu Coleção Berardo, in Lisbon — whose name was changed earlier this year to Museu de Are Contemporânea Centro Cultural de Belém — is the only Portuguese museum that appears on the list of the 100 most visited, having reached the 96th position , with 617,684 entries, 116% more than in 2021, but still 42% below 2019.

In Brazil, only the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, in Rio de Janeiro, managed to make the list, in 33rd place, with 1,364,208 visitors.

In a similar situation was the National Prado Museum, in Madrid, Spain, which managed to reach the 13th position on the list, with 2,456,724 entries, an increase of 109%, but registering a drop of 30% compared to the last year before the pandemic.

In second place in the list of the 100 most visited were the Vatican Museums, in Italy, with 5,080,866, and the third and four places went to museums in London, in the United Kingdom, according to the same study.

The British Museum accounted for 4,097,253 visits, 209% more than in 2021, but 34% less than in 2019, and right after, the Tate Modern, with 3,883,160, a gain of 236% compared to 2021, but still down 36% in the year before the emergence of covid-19.

The world recovery is uneven, underlines the article in The Art Newspaper: in fifth place comes the National Museum of Korea, in Seoul, visited by 3,411,381 people in 2022, an increase of 170% compared to the previous year and, exceptionally, in list, with a 2% increase compared to 2019.

Other exceptions — 17 known out of a hundred — are the National Russian Museum, in Saint Petersburg, with 2,651,688 entries, 17% more than in 2021 and 11% more compared to 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, up 71%, was 43% short of 2019, the Kremlin Museums, in Moscow, registered 861,341 visitors, an increase of 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, gained 64% more entries than in 2021, but 34% less than in 2019, in Washington, the National Gallery of Art welcomed 3,256,433 visitors — the most visited in the country -, an increase of 91%, but still 20% less compared to pre-pandemic numbers.

In China, due to the very restrictive policy to deal with the pandemic, the negative impact on visits to museums in the country was high.

An exception in Chinese territory was the new M+ Museum, in Hong Kong, opened 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 welcomed 1,451,727 visitors, 165% more than in 2021, but 18% less than in 2019,

In Portugal, national museums, monuments and palaces recovered almost two million visitors in 2022, after losses during the pandemic, adding a total of 3,339,416 entries, according to statistics from the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, remaining, however, , also short of the approximately four to five million, reached before the pandemic, between 2017 and 2019.

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