Louvre museum breaks visitor record in 2018
05 January, 2019
A music video by Beyonce and Jay-Z set in the Louvre helped boost visitor numbers to a record 10.2 million last year, the most for any museum in history, the Louvre said Thursday.
A rebound in tourist numbers to Paris, following a drop after Islamist militants killed 130 people in the French capital in November 2015, also helped the museum achieve a 25 percent increase in visitors on the previous year.
The Louvre said it was happy at the response to the video by Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z for the song “APES**T” in which they perform in front of the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and other famous artworks. It has been viewed nearly 150 million times on YouTube.
“It is good to see that these American artists, creators of today, are interested in a museum of archaeology and ancient art,” Louvre Director Jean-Luc Martinez told Reuters.
The Louvre’s previous record was 9.7 million visitors in 2012, when the museum inaugurated its Islamic Art section and held exhibitions on Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.
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