The Art Newspaper published its annual survey of museum attendance which shows the top museums in Paris are feeling the pinch of reduced travel over terror fears:
A drop in foreign tourism in Paris after a series of terrorist attacks continues to have an impact on the Louvre’s attendance, but the museum still tops our survey with 7.4 million visitors in 2016 (down from 8.6 million in 2015). It has experienced a decline of nearly two million visitors since 2014, which represents a significant dent in income from ticket sales at a time when security costs have soared. The Musée d’Orsay also experienced a fall, down to three million visitors from 3.4 million in 2015. But the Centre Pompidou, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is less dependent on visitors from the US, China and elsewhere. Its attendance went up by 275,000, to around 3.3 million visitors.
The surprises in the story are the strong results for Carlos Slim’s Museo Soumaya and the huge attendance in Brasil, including an Australian Contemporary artist’s show in two different cities:
Patricia Piccinini’s fantastical, mutant human and animal sculptures drew 8,300 visitors a day to the CCBB in Rio de Janeiro, 5,200 to its Brasilia venue and 3,100 to its São Paulo branch. That makes Piccinini the top contemporary artist in this year’s survey.
Visitor figures 2016: Christo helps 1.2 million people to walk on water (The Art Newspaper)
