MADRID’S Prado Museum set an annual visitor record on Saturday with 3.5 million attendees- beating last year’s previous best of 3.2 million.
Almost 45% of visitors got free entry during 2024 with 60% of attendees coming from abroad.
The daily average worked out at 9,580 visitors and the busiest month was May which saw 327,000 people visit the Prado.
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Almost 15,000 people attended on May 18- the date of the Day and Night of Museums event.
The Prado has the world’s most comprehensive collection of Spanish paintings and sculptures totalling 8600 art works and more than 700 sculptures.
It’s main attractions include paintings by Velazquez, El Greco, and Goya.
Prado director, Miguel Falomir, said: “It is especially pleasing that the visitor record was broken on a day which had free entry in the evening.”
“We are not just interested in welcoming more people but we want to open the gallery to new audiences thanks to the night events,” he added.
The building was inaugurated as the Royal Museum of Paintings in November 1819.
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