The Paris Louvre has maintained its position at the top of the list of the world’s most visited museums, boasting an annual attendance of 9.3 million visitors for 2013.  Foreign visitors represented 70% of ticket sales, the museum said in a statement. (more…)

The Tate Modern has announced the attendance figures from the just-closed Matisse Cut-Outs show, which tallied over 500 million visitors during its run, making it the most highly attended exhibition in museum history.  “The fact that the works have not been brought together for 40 years captured people’s imaginations,” said Director Nicholas Serota. (more…)

The Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas has announced that it will soon welcome its one millionth visitor since opening in 2011.  Founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, the museum has exceeded all visitor estimates, seeing annual attendance well over 500,000 annually.  “Reaching one million visitors just 21 months after our opening is a huge milestone for us,” said Executive Director Rod Bigelow. “From the day we opened our doors, our goal has been to welcome visitors to experience the power of art and the beauty of nature, and we’re thankful to have been able to create these connections with such a vast audience.”  (more…)

Paul McCarthy’s WS has become the Park Avenue Armory’s second most well-attended show at the venue’s history, having already drawn 11,000 visitors since its opening last month.  The work, already gaining major press for its challenging subject matter, runs until August 4th.  “There’s a much narrower potential audience for this than for most things we’ve done before,” says Armory President Rebecca Robertson, “so I think the attendance we’re seeing is very strong.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper has published its annual survey of museum attendance for 2012, highlighting the best attended shows and museums of the past year.  While the top names on the list stayed relatively unchanged from past years (The Louvre still remains the world’s best attended museum, with The Met close behind), the recently opened Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas surged onto the list, and MOCA in Los Angeles also noted a dip in the face of board defections and budgetary concerns.  Also of note is the top exhibition of last year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum’s Old Masters show, which drew more than 10,000 visitors a day to see Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. (more…)

The Gagosian Gallery’s current retrospective of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is drawing impressive crowds to the gallery’s Chelsea location on 24th St.  Weekend attendance has frequently topped 3,000 visitors a day, and weekday attendance has seen somewhere from 1,000 to 2,000 visitors daily.  Attendance numbers are only expected to grow, with the upcoming Armory Show bringing much of the art world to New York City. (more…)

The Tate Modern’s massive retrospective for British artist Damien Hirst has helped propel the Museum’s attendance to record numbers. Tate Modern saw over 463,000 visitors pass through the exhibition, contributing to the 5.3 million total visitors last year, and also announced the opening of their new extension, The Tanks.  Alex Beard, Tate’s deputy director, said: “It has been an extraordinary year at Tate Modern, opening the Tanks, the world’s first museum galleries permanently dedicated to exhibiting live art, performance, installation and film works, alongside an outstanding exhibition programme which has undoubtedly fuelled the increase in visitors.” (more…)

Art Fag City has compiled a list of new additions to the annual Armory Show, and another of previous guests not attending this year.  A number of major galleries will not be attending this year, including Zach Feuer, Paul Kasmin, Greene Naftali, and Andrew Kreps Gallery. (more…)