Prado Museum Bicentennial: Record 3.3 Million Visitors and Ambitious Future Plans

The Museo del Prado in Madrid concluded its 13-month bicentennial celebrations on December 15, 2019, with record-breaking attendance of 3,335,685 visitors, a 10.12% increase over 2018. Of these, over 3 million visited the permanent collection, while the rest attended temporary exhibitions and events across Spain. Italian tourists accounted for 9.02% of foreign visitors, second only to Americans at 9.96%. The museum's board president Javier Solana declared the bicentennial a historic success, while director Miguel Falomir highlighted the affection shown by the Spanish public, noting that in Teruel, a Titian work was seen by 30% of the local population. Revenue from ticket sales covered 54.5% of costs (€5.174 million), with the remainder from sponsors. The bicentennial program included six major temporary exhibitions, featuring Giacometti's bronzes in the central gallery, Beato Angelico's Annunciation, a dialogue between Rembrandt, Vermeer, Velázquez, and Zurbarán, a comprehensive Goya drawing show, and a pioneering exhibition of Renaissance women artists Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. Future plans center on the Salón de Reinos expansion designed by Norman Foster, awaiting government funding to complete the Campus Prado and display some 300 paintings currently in storage.