The world’s leading tourist destination, popular for its gastronomy, its architecture, its elegance, its haute couture and its fashion and perfumery creations…, Paris is also a concentrate of culture which is expressed, among other things, through its museums with international influence , several of which contain the richest objects and collections of works of art in the world.
Significantly, these Museums are not experiencing a crisis in their love affair with the public. Proof of this is the year 2023 which was the year of all records in French museums. And even though this year was marked by unprecedented staff strikes, visitors enjoyed the exhibitions, but also the permanent collections.
From history to art, from the Louvre, to the Center Pompidou, via the Grand Palais, the Musée d’Orsay…, Paris is a true cultural paradise full of the most visited museums on the planet. Major exhibitions triumphed in 2023, some museums experienced peaks in attendance.
Starting with the Louvre, a precious jewel of humanity, attracting the largest number of visitors in the world. This is where Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa rests. Its attendance equaled its 2015 record with 9.5 million visitors, or around 27,000 people per day. And to think that the strike action at the beginning of December would have caused the loss of 50,000 more visitors. Gold medal for the exhibition it hosted, dedicated to the three Italian painters of the end of the 16th century, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and which attracted nearly 250,000 visitors.
And if the museum bears such a name, it is because these districts are located in the splendid building that is the Louvre Palace, considered the largest palace in the world. With an area of 135,000 m2, its construction was spread out, period after period, over 800 years, from the Renaissance style to classical and neoclassical styles.
Like the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay is doing as well in 2023 as in 2022, with just over 3 million visitors. The James Ensor and ”Art Nouveau Revival” exhibitions attracted more than 4,000 fans per day.
As for the Center Pompidou, it broke its record. Since the reopening of this Center, also called the Beaubourg Center in 2000, the year 2008 had the best vintage: 2023 did even better with nearly 3.5 million visitors, despite four weeks of total closure between November and December. Daily attendance (12,000 people) increased by 33% in one year. ”Kandinsky,” with 703,000 admissions, was the third most attended exhibition since the museum opened in 1977.
The Center Pompidou, we recall, is a world reference in terms of contemporary art museums. Two museums surpass it in wealth of collections those of New York and London.
As for the Musée du Quai Branly, open since 2006, it recorded an increase in attendance of 7.9% with 1.5 million visitors in 2023. The ”Jazz Age” exhibition beat ”Tarzan” by a margin (175,000 visitors against 170,000).
This museum, which houses a 2 hectare garden, is one of the cultural jewels of Paris. It is designed to highlight non-European cultures.
