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The Museum on the Mound
There has long been some form of museum in the bowels of the Bank of Scotland building on the Mound, now the Scottish HQ of Lloyds, but until 2006 entry was by appointment only and the displays were limited to one room. The Museum on the Mound opened five years ago, pre-financial crisis, and there is bleak humour to be found in the displays and their accompanying text: 'Not just a respectable career, it also offered an opportunity for more leisurely pursuits … See what 'high jinks' staff got up to in their free time.' There are seven rooms in total, detailing how money evolved over 4,000 years. One case holds £1m in used £20 notes.
•The Mound, 0131-243 5464, museumonthemound.com, free. Open Tues-Fri 10am-5pm Sat, Sun, bank holiday Mon 1pm-5pm
•The Mound, 0131-243 5464, museumonthemound.com, free. Open Tues-Fri 10am-5pm Sat, Sun, bank holiday Mon 1pm-5pm
Soane Museum - This magnificent home, museum and library in-one has been preserved since architect Sir John Soane’s death, nearly 180 years ago. Full of artifacts, this stunning building is a work of art itself and stands apart from the contemporary styles of the other museums listed here. #10 of 66 Museums in Boston “ Having been to a number of children's museums around the country, this one is one of the very best with so much to explore, learn, and experience first-hand. “ We try and visit Childrens Museums around the country when we travel, and according to my boys, this is the best one yet.
Surgeons' Hall Museums
In a glass cabinet in Surgeons' Hall Museums is a small hide-bound pocketbook the colour of strong tea. The wallet is made from the skin of William Burke, one half of Edinburgh's infamous body-snatchers and killers, Burke and Hare, whose victims were sold to the city's school of anatomy to be dissected. It is artefacts like this – and glass jars filled with gangrenous fingers, cancerous lungs, dried and varnished hearts – that have made the museum, tucked behind the Royal College of Surgeons, a favourite of crime writers. Look out for the silver mask, complete with an elaborate false moustache, fashioned by a doctor to hide the terrible injuries suffered in the siege of Antwerp in 1832 by a young soldier.
•Royal College of Surgeons, Nicolson Street, 0131-527 1649, museum.rcsed.ac.uk, £5, concessions £3. Open Mon-Fri noon-4pm, Sun noon-4pm (2 April to 30 October only)
•Royal College of Surgeons, Nicolson Street, 0131-527 1649, museum.rcsed.ac.uk, £5, concessions £3. Open Mon-Fri noon-4pm, Sun noon-4pm (2 April to 30 October only)
National Museum of Flight
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Not within the city limits, but worth the short drive to East Fortune in East Lothian, this museum tells the story of flight from the Wright brothers to the present day in a series of converted hangars on a former RAF base. The big draw is Concorde, one of the 20 now-defunct aircraft, which was shipped to Scotland in 2004 for a special exhibit on supersonic flight. The child-friendly site includes 50 aircraft, and artefacts from both commercial and military aviation, including the fuselage of a Boeing 707.
•East Fortune Airfield, East Lothian, 0300 123 6789, nms.ac.uk, adults £9.50, concessions £7.50, children £4, under-fives free. Open daily 10am-5pm (April to October), Sat, Sun only 10am-4pm (November to March)
•East Fortune Airfield, East Lothian, 0300 123 6789, nms.ac.uk, adults £9.50, concessions £7.50, children £4, under-fives free. Open daily 10am-5pm (April to October), Sat, Sun only 10am-4pm (November to March)
National Museum of Scotland
The grande dame of Edinburgh's museums only recently reopened after a three-year, £47m refurbishment, with 16 new galleries and 8,000 objects, 80% of which are being viewed for the first time. The stuffed animals are now out from behind glass and posed with video backdrops. Dolly the sheep is here, as is a 12m cast of a T-rex skeleton and the jawbone of a sperm whale. The new displays are more interactive, covering science, technology, transport and world cultures, and at the adjoining museum on the history of Scotland, you can see jewellery commissioned by Mary Queen of Scots and listen to the chuff and whistle of a 1923 Corliss steam engine that once powered a weaving mill.
•Chambers Street, 0300 123 6789, nms.ac.uk, free. Open daily 10am-5pm
•Chambers Street, 0300 123 6789, nms.ac.uk, free. Open daily 10am-5pm
The Museum of Childhood
Skim through the visitors' book and you'll find tourists returning after 20 years, delighted to find that little has changed in this four-storey building. That is the charm of the place, opened in the 1950s to become the first museum devoted to a social history of childhood. Founder Joseph Patrick Murray built up an extensive collection of toys, games, clothes, teddy bears and dolls. The carpet is well-trodden, there are small chairs for small visitors, a puppet theatre and dressing-up area, and the PA system on the top floor pipes children's voices and nursery rhymes so that the noise permeates the building.
•42 High Street, Royal Mile, 0131-529 4142, edinburghmuseums.org.uk, free. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm
•42 High Street, Royal Mile, 0131-529 4142, edinburghmuseums.org.uk, free. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm
Scottish National Gallery
One of the first pieces you will see is Titian's Venus Anadyomene, bought for the nation for more than £11m in 2003. The 500-year-old Renaissance work, described by the then director general Sir Timothy Clifford as a 'very sexy lady', had hung in the gallery for 60 years on loan from the Duke of Sutherland. When he died in 2000, they were offered first refusal. A little further in are Canova's Three Graces, purchased jointly with the V&A in 1994. The ground level covers European art from the 16th to 19th centuries, the basement, the Scottish collection including Sir Henry Raeburn's Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch.
•The Mound, 0131-624 6200, nationalgalleries.org, free. Open Mon-Wed, Fri-Sun 10am-5pm (August only 10am-6pm), Thurs 10am-7pm
•The Mound, 0131-624 6200, nationalgalleries.org, free. Open Mon-Wed, Fri-Sun 10am-5pm (August only 10am-6pm), Thurs 10am-7pm
Royal Scottish Academy
The RSA occupies the William Henry Playfair building closest to Princes Street, and is one of the UK's premier exhibition venues. This year's landmark show is a retrospective of the work of Elizabeth Blackadder, the Scots artist best known for her landscape, still life and flower paintings. Dame Elizabeth, the Queen's painter and limner in Scotland, turns 80 this year and the show spans six decades of her career. There are plenty of her trademark delicate studies of blossoms and blooms, but also lesser-known and bolder works from her many travels, particularly to Japan. The show runs until January 2012.
•The Mound, 0131-225 6671, royalscottishacademy.org, admission to Blackadder exhibition £8, concessions £6. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12pm-5pm
•The Mound, 0131-225 6671, royalscottishacademy.org, admission to Blackadder exhibition £8, concessions £6. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12pm-5pm
City Art Centre
A former warehouse and part of the old Scotsman building, the CAC has a rolling programme of exhibitions showcasing a wide range of contemporary Scottish and international artists. Past events have included the Art of Star Wars – one of several to pull in more than 100,000 visitors. The current exhibition features the work of London-based Scot David Mach, known for his large-scale collages, sculptures and installations, and the main entrance is dominated by Mach's Golgotha tableau: three giant crucified figures pinned to steel girders. The public galleries are spread over six floors, and third floor has been temporarily given over to a studio space for Mach, where he has been working on a final piece for the exhibition – a decoupage depiction of the Last Supper. Visitors can wander by and watch the creative process, and the exhibition runs until 16 October.
•2 Market Street, 0131-529 3993, edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venues/City-Art-Centre, free, David Mach exhibition – adults £5, concessions £3.50, children 5-15 £2.50. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12pm-5pm
•2 Market Street, 0131-529 3993, edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venues/City-Art-Centre, free, David Mach exhibition – adults £5, concessions £3.50, children 5-15 £2.50. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12pm-5pm
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Split between two buildings on either side of Belford Road, Modern One and Modern Two, the gallery houses the nation's collection of modern and contemporary art. Modern Two, previously the Dean Gallery, was built as an orphanage. An austere structure, it's home to a large collection of Dada and Surrealist art, and a collection of the works of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. Across the waythe grounds of Modern One are dominated by Charles Jencks' Landform, a stepped and spiralling mound with reflecting pools. Inside, one of the more recently acquired works is The Mysterious Garden, a watercolour by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, wife of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, some of whose studies hang nearby.
•73/75 Belford Road, 0131-624 6200, nationalgalleries.org/modernartgalleries, free, a charge may be made for special exhibitions, parking £1 for four hours. Open daily 10am-5pm
•73/75 Belford Road, 0131-624 6200, nationalgalleries.org/modernartgalleries, free, a charge may be made for special exhibitions, parking £1 for four hours. Open daily 10am-5pm
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Due to re-open on 1 December – public sector strikes willing – after an £18m refurbishment, and those who have seen inside the distinctive red neo-gothic building, originally modelled on the Doges Palace in Venice, say the gloomy interiors are gone, replaced by 17 new, light, airy gallery spaces and themed exhibits. The gallery is home to the national collection of portraits and the national photography collection, with studies of great Scots from Robert Burns and David Hume to Sean Connery, Alex Ferguson and Tilda Swinton.
•1 Queen Street, 0131-624 6200, nationalgalleries.org/portraitgallery, free. Open daily from 1 December, 10am-5pm
•1 Queen Street, 0131-624 6200, nationalgalleries.org/portraitgallery, free. Open daily from 1 December, 10am-5pm
•Kirsty Scott is a Guardian writer based in Scotland
(Redirected from List of most visited art museums in the world)
This article lists the most visited art museums in the world in 2018. It includes museums with more than one million visitors annually where the display of art, for the art itself, is the museum's primary purpose. The primary source is the The Art Newspaper annual survey of the number of visitors to major art museums in 2018, published April 7, 2019, unless otherwise noted.[1][2]
List[edit]
Art museums | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
N. | Name | City | Annual visitation figures as reported in 2019 by the Art Newspaper | Image |
Musée du Louvre | Paris | 10,200,000 | ||
2 | National Museum of China | Beijing | 8,610,092 | |
Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York City | 6,953,927 | ||
4 | Vatican Museums | Vatican City | 6,756,186 | |
Tate Modern | London | 5,868,562 | ||
6 | British Museum | London | 5,820,000 | |
National Gallery | London | 5,735,831 | ||
8 | National Gallery of Art | Washington, D.C. | 4,404,212 | |
State Hermitage Museum | Saint Petersburg | 4,220,000 | ||
10 | Victoria and Albert Museum | London | 3,967,566 | |
Reina Sofía | Madrid | 3,898,309 | ||
12 | National Palace Museum | Taipei | 3,860,644 | |
Museo del Prado | Madrid | 3,672,853 | ||
14 | Musée National d'Art Moderne (Centre Pompidou) | Paris | 3,551,544 | |
National Museum of Korea | Seoul | 3,304,453 | ||
16 | Musée d'Orsay | Paris | 3,286,224 | |
Somerset House | London | 3,143,626 | ||
18 | Moscow Kremlin Museums | Moscow | 2,867,295 | |
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum | Tokyo | 2,787,770 | ||
20 | Museum of Modern Art | New York City | 2,774,103 | |
The National Art Center, Tokyo | Tokyo | 2,717,565 | ||
22 | National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne | 2,565,474 | |
Tokyo National Museum | Tokyo | 2,431,073 | ||
24 | Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture | Washington D.C. | 2,304,404 | |
Rijksmuseum | Amsterdam | 2,300,000 | ||
26 | Galleria degli Uffizi | Florence | 2,230,914 | |
National Museum of Scotland | Edinburgh | 2,227,773 | ||
28 | Van Gogh Museum | Amsterdam | 2,190,000 | |
Tretyakov Gallery | Moscow | 2,148,538 | ||
30 | Shanghai Museum | Shanghai | 2,111,730 | |
National Folk Museum of Korea | Seoul | 2,054,719 | ||
32 | National Gallery Singapore | Singapore | 1,803,340 | |
Acropolis Museum | Athens | 1,774,304 | ||
34 | Scottish National Gallery | Edinburgh | 1,739,128 | |
Galleria dell'Accademia | Florence | 1,719,645 | ||
36 | Art Institute of Chicago | Chicago | 1,621,861 | |
Royal Academy of Arts | London | 1,594,140 | ||
38 | National Portrait Gallery | London | 1,586,451 | |
Belvedere | Vienna | 1,510,468 | ||
40 | Getty Center | Los Angeles | 1,509,196[a] | |
Queensland Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | 1,463,448 | ||
42 | Australian Centre for the Moving Image | Melbourne | 1,412,630 | |
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil | Rio de Janeiro | 1,388,664 | ||
44 | Royal Ontario Museum | Toronto | 1,381,712 | |
National Museum of Western Art | Tokyo | 1,436,941 | ||
46 | Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations(MUCEM) | Marseille | 1,335,000 | |
Art Gallery of New South Wales | Sydney | 1,303,789 | ||
48 | Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts | Moscow | 1,301,832 | |
Tate Britain | London | 1,272,523 | ||
50 | Guggenheim Museum Bilbao | Bilbao | 1,265,756 | |
Musée du quai Branly | Paris | 1,261,817 | ||
52 | Museum of Fine Arts | Boston | 1,249,080 | |
Petit Palais | Paris | 1,203,810 | ||
54 | Saatchi Gallery | London | 1,200,000 | |
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art | Seoul | 1,185,168 | ||
56 | National Museum in Krakow | Krakow | 1,147,140 | |
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil | Brasília | 1,146,995 | ||
58 | Louis Vuitton Foundation | Paris | 1,142,731 | |
Hong Kong Heritage Museum | Hong Kong | 1,142,235 | ||
60 | National Museum of Modern Art | Japan | 1,129,270 | |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston | Houston | 1,117,269 | ||
62 | Grand Palais | Paris | 1,106,868 | |
Dalí Theatre and Museum | Figueres | 1,105,169 | ||
64 | National Museum of the American Indian | Washington, D.C. | 1,104,751 | |
Gyeongju National Museum | Gyeongju | 1,102,837 | ||
66 | Los Angeles County Museum of Art | Los Angeles | 1,096,741 | |
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | Sydney | 1,089,551 | ||
68 | Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum | Glasgow | 1,054,562 | |
Guggenheim Museum | New York City | 1,031,085 | ||
70 | Tel Aviv Museum of Art | Tel Aviv | 1,108,323 | |
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art | San Francisco | 1,014,000 | ||
72 | Whitney Museum | New York City | 1,006,918 | |
Albertina | Vienna | 1,004,800 | ||
74 | Musée de l'Orangerie | Paris | 1,004,287 | |
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts | Montreal | 1,004,287 | ||
76 | Louvre Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi | 1,000,700 | |
National Art Museum of China | Beijing | 1,000,000 |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^Includes the Getty Center only. Does not include Getty Villa (379,214).
References[edit]
- ^Sharpe, Emily; Da Silva, José (24 March 2019). 'Art's Most Popular: here are 2018's most visited shows and museums'. The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
- ^'Exhibition and museum visitor figures 2018'. The Art Newspaper. 311: xv. April 2019.
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