Paris Louvre most visited museum in the world

The Louvre museum in Paris had a record number of visitors last year, consolidated its position as the world's most-visited museum according to figures released on Monday.

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8.8 million people visited the museum, which houses Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and hundreds of other masterpieces.

The Louvre saw a five percent increase in visitors in 2011, after three years in a row in which about 8.5 million people had visited the museum, it said in a statement.

The museum apparently enjoyed "a strong return of American visits and a more and more marked presence of visitors from emerging countries."

66 percent of those who visited the museum came from outside France, led by tourists from the United States, followed by those who came from Brazil, Italy, Australia and China.

French officials said last week that they expect figures to show that about 27 million visited French museums last year, a more than five per cent increase in 2011 compared to 2010.

According to a survey by The Art Newspaper, which is based in London, the second most-visited museum in 2010 was the British Museum, with 5.8 million visitors, followed by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art with 5.2 million.