The National Museum of Korea last year ranked sixth worldwide in the number of visitors for a museum or art gallery. (Korea.net DB)

By Lee Jihae

The National Museum of Korea in Seoul last year ranked sixth worldwide in the number of visitors for a museum or art gallery.

The monthly Art Newspaper of the U.K. on April 7 said the museum attracted 4,180,285 visitors last year, sixth in the world.

The figure, a record high for the museum, exceeded four million for the first time in the facility's history.

Tops on the list was the Louvre Museum in Paris with 8,860,000 visitors, followed by the Vatican Museums (6,764,858) in Vatican City, British Museum (5,820,860) in London, Metropolitan Museum of Art (5,364,000) in New York and Tate Modern (4,742,038) in London.

Though sixth worldwide, the museum in Seoul was the most visited facility of its kind in Asia. Second on the continent last year was the art gallery M+ (2,797,616) in Hong Kong, which ranked 15th in the world, followed by the National Art Center in Tokyo, Japan (2,250,758) at 21st.

Fourth in Asia was the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea with 2,021,771, ranking 26th worldwide.

jihlee08@korea.kr