National Gallery of Victoria in list of the world's top 20 most visited art galleries

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has been recognised as the world’s top 20 most visited art museums as revealed by the UK’s The Art Newspaper in its latest survey of global museum attendance.

In 2016 the NGV was the 19th most popular gallery in the world with more than 2.6 million visitors across its two campuses. The ranking places the gallery in the company of Paris’ Musee d’Orsay and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

The 2016 ranking moved the gallery up two places from its 2015 ranking of 21.

The NGV’s attendance figures have been rapidly increasing year on year with just over two million visitors in 2014, 2.4 million in 2015 and a high of 2.6 million last year.

The NGV’s program in 2016 included the record-breaking Andy Warhol|Ai Weiwei summer exhibition, the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition Degas: A New Vision and the Summer Kids Festival which attracted over 22,000 children in just 11 days.

Another Victorian success story on the list was Melbourne-based artist Patricia Piccinini, whose free exhibition Consciousness at Rio de Janeiro’s Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil was ranked number two in the world with a reported 444,425 visitors - over 8,000 visitors a day.

Welcoming the recognition, Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley stated “our National Gallery, led by Tony Ellwood is known for setting its sights high - and it consistently delivers, not only locally but on the world stage.

“It’s no mean feat for a gallery in a city with a relatively small population to be ranked among the top museums on earth. It’s something all Victorians - as the owners of the NGV - can be proud of.”

Images: The NGV's entry (top) and promotion for the Andy Warhol|Ai Weiwei summer exhibition (below).

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