The world’s most popular museums are bursting at the seams. As visitor numbers stop being the sole metric of success, is quality becoming more important than quantity?
Last month Miguel Falomir, director of the Prado, caused a stir at a press conference when he said, ‘The Prado doesn’t need a single visitor more.’ The success of a museum, he added, ‘can collapse it, like the Louvre, with some rooms becoming oversaturated. The important thing is not to collapse.’