Top Five Most Visited Museums

These museums receive millions of visitors every year, making them the most visited museums in the world. They are home to masterpieces and care for a collection of artefacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical or scientific importance.

The Louvre Museum, Paris, France
The Louvre is the world’s largest museum. Situated in Paris, France, the historic monument has about 38,000 prehistorical objects exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. In 2017, the Louvre was the world’s most visited art museum, receiving 8.1 million visitors. Housed in the Louvre Palace, the Louvre was built as a fortress in the late 12th to the 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The museum also served as the location for a video by Beyoncé and Jay-Z in their new joint album.

The Louvre Museum. Photo credit Impressive Magazine

National Museum of China, Beijing
With over eight million visitors in 2017, the National Museum of China is a spectacular art museum which covers Chinese history. One of the largest in the world, the museum was established in 2003. The structure sits on 6.5 hectares of land and displays works over a total floor space of nearly 200,000 square metres. The museum holds important items like the “Simuwu Ding”, the heaviest piece of ancient bronze ware in the world, and a gold-inlaid Qin Dynasty bronze tally in the shape of a tiger.

National Museum of China. Photo credit Mandelan

National Air and Space Museum, Washington, United States
Established in 1946, this museum is a centre for research into the history and science of aviation and spaceflight, planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. It covers an area of 71,000 square metres. The museum contains the Apollo 11 command module, the Friendship 7 capsule which was flown by John Glenn, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, the Bell X-1 which broke the sound barrier, and the Wright brothers’ plane near the entrance. In 2017, the museum received up to seven million visitors.

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Photo credit Novum Structures

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
One of the finest art museums in the world, “The Met” was founded in 1870 to bring art and art education to Americans. It holds an impressive collection of over two million works of art with American, modern, African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine and Islamic art. The collection consists of works of art spanning five thousand years like classical antiquity, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters. There are also encyclopaedic collections of musical instruments, costumes, accessories, antique weapons and armour.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo Flickr

Vatican Museums, Vatican City
These Christian and art museums located in the Vatican City display works from the immense collections amassed by Popes throughout the centuries. The works include some of the most renowned classical sculptures and masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums, founded by Pope Julius in the early 16th century, contain roughly 70,000 works. In 2017, they were visited by approximately six million people.

The Vatican Library in the Vatican Museums. Photo credit ItalyGuides