More and more people are interested in art and culture and who use their free time and leisure to visit museums. Furthermore, as we saw a few days ago, in 2011 we have been enjoying major exhibitions worldwide. The importance of cultural tourism is growing, so that cities built museums in tourism. Thus, when we travel we enjoy museums of all kinds.
The main cities and capitals of the world have museums of great importance and that each year attracts thousands of visitors. BBC Travel has developed a list of world’s most visited museums during the 2011. Let’s see what they were.
- Louvre Museum (Paris / France)
It is probably the world’s most popular museum and also the most visited. In fact, it seems that no one may threaten the privileged position, as in 2011 received more than eight and a half million visitors. The museum houses a vast storehouse of 300,000 art pieces, which exposes 35,000, including the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. Inside you can find beautiful paintings, sculptures and objects from past civilizations and all over the world.
- Smithsonian National Air and Space (Washington / USA)
Opened in 1976, houses the collection of aircraft and spacecraft in the world’s largest, with over 50,000 original items from the Wright brothers’ plane in 1903 to a lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. In addition, visitors can enjoy flight simulators, shows in 3D space and the spectacular Albert Einstein Planetarium. During 2011 received 8.3 million visitors.
- National Museum of Natural History (Washington / USA)
It has a collection of more than 126 million items, including plants, animals, fossils of dinosaurs, meteorites, rocks and human cultural objects. It is considered the largest natural history museum in the world. Last year received 6.8 million visits.
- British Museum (London / UK)
The second European museum of the list is also one of the most important, thanks to its impressive collection of more than 7 million objects that allow us to time travel back in time. It also covers such diverse fields as human knowledge, history, archeology and art, among others. Also notable for its section on ancient Egypt, the largest in the world after that of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Last year was visited by nearly 5 ½ million people.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York / USA)
Thanks mainly to the exhibition “Alexander McQueen: Wild Beauty,” which has received over 600,000 visitors, is in the fifth position of the most visited museums in 2011. The Met’s collection is more than two million works of art from around the world, with collections covering all periods and styles. Inside are works of great masters such as Rembrandt, Velázquez, Picasso, Braque, Raphael and many more. In 2011 received more than 5.2 million hits.