The World's Most Visited Art Museums

A museum is an institution that is set up to conserve and care for a collection of artifacts and other objects of historical, cultural, artistic, or scientific significance. Some museums are open and available to the public through permanent or temporary exhibits. Some of the largest museums are found in major cities across the world. There are various kinds of museums including art museums, science museums, natural history museums, children’s museums, and war museums.

5. National Palace Museum

The national palace museum is located in Shilin District,Taipei,Taiwan. It was initially established in mainland China in 1925, shortly after the dethroning of China's last emperor, Puyi by the warlord Feng Yu-hsiang. It has a remarkable exhibit of 700,000 pieces of works of art, history, and culture of the Chinese dating almost 8,000 years. The Museum was moved to Taiwan in 1948. The Sino-Japanese and Chinese Civil Wars contributed greatly to the present day look of the museum, which is of one of the world’s most visited, receiving 6,142,892 visitors annually.

4. Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum, known colloquially as the "Met" is the largest museum in the US and one of the most visited arts museums in the world. It has seventeen departments with more than 2 million collections. The museum was founded in 1870 by the leading artists, businesspeople, and financiers. It opened its doors in February 1872. Approximately 6,700,000 people walk through its door annually. Famous exhibits include the Egyptian Art Center housing the Temple of Dendur.

3. British Museum

The British Museum was established in 1753 with the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane and opened to the public on January 15, 1759. Over the centuries it has expanded and opened branches, and the first one being the British Museum of Natural History in 1881. The museum receives approximately 6,820,000 visitors annually to view nearly 8 million works of history, art, and culture.

2. Louvre

The Louvre Museum is the largest museum in the world, and a notable monument in Paris found on the banks of the River Seine. The Museum is the second most visited museum in the world receiving around 7,300,000 million tourists annually. The museum holds about 35,000 objects, varying from prehistory to the 21st century and covering an area of 782,910 square feet. It was originally built in the late 12th century and was used as the residence of the French kings. In 1793, it opened to the public exhibiting about 537 paintings. The Museum was closed in 1796 and re-opened in 1801

1. The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was constructed between 1406 and 1420. It is a complex consisting of 980 buildings and gardens covering over 72 hectares. Initially, it served as the imperial palace for the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty. Subsequently, it severed as the home of emperors and a political center for Chinese government for almost 500 years. From 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the Palace Museum and receives 16,000,000 visitors every year making it the world’s most visited museum.