International Museum Attendance Back to “Natural Level”

Wednesday, April 2, 2025
International Museum Attendance Back to “Natural Level”

International museums in 2024 collectively experienced a slight dip in attendance that marks a return to normalcy in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, the Art Newspaper reports.

According to the publication’s annual study, the decline suggests the post-pandemic build-back has ended, and institutions can expect to see visitor numbers rise or fall based on typical factors including the popularity of exhibitions, the presence of amenities, tourism patterns, weather, and space constraints.

Among those seeing a minimal decrease in attendance was the world’s most visited museum, the Louvre in Paris, which experienced a 1 percent dip from 2023 visitor levels. The second-most-visited institution, the Vatican Museums in Rome, saw a slight uptick of nearly a percentage point. Many London museums had a thornier time of it, with no clear pattern emerging: Several were down year-over-year, others were up but still below pre-pandemic numbers, while still others had their best years since 2018. The Art Newspaper reports pointed out that British museums’ general reliance on superb branding and commercial acuity, rather than on government and donor funding, stands them in comparatively poor stead when tourism is down thanks to Brexit and other world events, which also seemed to have evinced a shift away from contemporary art and toward more traditional fare.

Main Image: The Louvre, Copyright Dirk Vanduffel

Stephanie Cime

ArtDependence WhatsApp Group

Get the latest ArtDependence updates directly in WhatsApp by joining the ArtDependence WhatsApp Group by clicking the link or scanning the QR code below

whatsapp-qr

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Image of the Day

Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.

Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.

Search

About ArtDependence

ArtDependence Magazine is an international magazine covering all spheres of contemporary art, as well as modern and classical art.

ArtDependence features the latest art news, highlighting interviews with today’s most influential artists, galleries, curators, collectors, fair directors and individuals at the axis of the arts.

The magazine also covers series of articles and reviews on critical art events, new publications and other foremost happenings in the art world.

If you would like to submit events or editorial content to ArtDependence Magazine, please feel free to reach the magazine via the contact page.