Most Visited Museums: Europe Leads, Asia Rises
The global museum map is being quietly redrawn. Once again, The Art Newspaper, edited by Lee Cheshire and Elena Goukassian, has released its annual ranking of the world’s 100 most visited museums, offering not just a list of numbers, but a snapshot of deeper cultural shifts. Overall, 2025 marks a milestone: the museum sector has largely completed its post-pandemic recovery. More than 200 million visits were recorded across the top 100 institutions - still below the 230 million peak of 2019, but a remarkable leap from the collapse to just 54 million in 2020. Look closer, however, and a more complex picture emerges. The rankings reveal a world still anchored in its traditional cultural powerhouses, especially across Europe, yet increasingly shaped by new centers of gravity. Asia, in particular, is no longer just catching up; it has become an indisputable protagonist in the global cultural landscape.
As Ethnic and Religious Tensions Persist, the New Syria is Seeking Rebirth through Culture
On 1 January 2026, the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums outlined Syria’s new national strategy for the protection and management of cultural heritage. Spanning the period from 2025 to 2035, the strategy presents heritage as both a national and a deeply human asset, something to be safeguarded not only for its historical value, but also for its potential role in social recovery and sustainable development.[1] This marks an important shift, since for more than a decade speaking about culture in Syria has largely meant speaking about loss: destroyed libraries, looted artworks, artists forced into exile, and cultural institutions silenced by war and political repression.