London’s Evening Standard reports that the Tate Modern has surpassed expectations with 5.3m visitors last year, 463,000 of those came to the Olympics-inspired Damien Hirst retrospective:

The figures support Tate Modern’s reputation as the world’s most visited modern art gallery. Two million visitors a year were predicted when it opened in 2000.

Tate bosses said the gallery’s older sister, the original Tate now called Tate Britain, also fared well despite disruption from a £45 million refurbishment programme which is due for completion this year. The Millbank site saw 1.53 million visitors last year — a 4.3 per cent increase on the figures for the same period in 2011.

Damien Hirst’s pickled cows help Tate Modern pull in record 5.3m visitors (Evening Standard)