PalenQ

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/ar...rity.html?_r=0

Interesting article on how many swarms of tourists Europe's top most famous art museums are attracting, creating tremendous mob scenes like in the photo in the article of the Louvre's Mona Lisa - where roped off throngs take selfies of themselves and the Mona Lisa - some indeed can't even see the actual photo but hold their camera high and snap a picture of it - as proof of 'having seen the Mona Lisa'!

Now most of the major museums mentioned now have time slots you can reserve or things like museum passes for the city can garner priority entrance, like at the Louvre with the Paris Carte des musees or in Amsterdam with the National Museum Pass, etc.

Anyway if visiting the most popular museums either book a time slot, get a pass that allows priority entrance or wait in LONG LONG lines to get in - see the line to get into the Louvre in this article (which also mentions the little used entrance in the southwest tip of one wing of the Louvre, where for years there has been a ticket booth with little or no lines usually IME.

dwdvagamundo

Anyone just back from Paris with experience with the other galleries of the Louvre? Are all the galleries that way or is everyone camped out in front of Mona as the foto would indicate.

PalenQ

IME of many visits to the Louvre have seen not so dense clots of tourists around la joconde as the famous painting is properly known I think but always a mob but I've failed to see this type of hectic elbow-elbow scenes in other parts of the museum - in fact much of the vast place has IME very little visitors - who just gravitate to the most famous parts - so I do not think this happens elsewhere very much and certainly no other mob scene like that.

suec1

Well I am just so thankful that I have seen most or even all of the big tourist sights. Now I can go and have the joy of "just being there" - hanging out in cities and cafes far from the crowds. Between the inexpensive EU flights and ever expanding cruise ship fleets, too many cities are no longer very enjoyable. The first time I went to St. Peter's we could get about 10 feet from the Pieta - next time maybe 15 feet back behind a velvet cord, next time there was the bullet proof glass 25 feet away - now long lines, security checks to even go inside. Sad. Maybe my days of European travel are coming to an end.

Dukey1

When I first visited the Louvre in 1970 the Mona Lisa was
"mobbed" then, too.

hetismij2

Develop a taste for the lesser known works in these museums and have them all to yourself.

If everyone buys tickets for priority entry it ends up like Global Entry in the US, where the queues can be longer for GE than for the rest.

Van Gogh museum did timed entry for big exhibitions. I went to one with my SIL. She wanted to be there at the start of our timeslot. I got us there with 15 minutes to go. Sailed past the queues for the next slot, and enjoyed relatively uncrowded viewing of the exhibition.

adrienne

I'm so happy I've never seen that mob scene. I thought the Mona Lisa was moved back to its former home in a gallery by itself, set 20 feet back from the rope?

There are tons of galleries in the Louvre with no one in sight. Everyone is camped out at the top 10 and missing some fabulous art.

suec1 - there are so many untapped, wonderful experiences in Europe.

IMDonehere

From a trip report form a few years ago:

We have all seen those zombie movies where the zombies walk en masse, with an arm extended, dragging a foot, eyeball dangling, and dressed in tatters seeking their next victim. This is the scene at Louvre but the walking dead mumble “Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa” as they limp without distraction toward Leonardo’s masterpiece. The sole difference being the extended arm has a digital point and shoot attached at the fingertips. Since I am the last living human yet to see or read “The Da Vinci Code” I am at disadvantage to understand the charm of the painting beyond the painting. I know it has something to do with the unusual trio of Opus Dei, Mary Magdalene, and Tom Hanks.

IMDonehere

Many people are intimidated by art and often stick with which they are comfortable or know. It also explains why the pastel colors of the Impressionists are also popular.

Most of the Louvre is hung salon style which makes it more difficult to view the works, than if each has a space to breath.

And then there is basic question, why do people travel in the first place, and the answers are as myriad as there works hidden in storage at the Louvre.
_____________

We visited the Rijksmuseum in May, a museum I have longed to see. There they have created their Hall of Honor for some of the world's most famous works and artists. It quickly becomes a cramped space where it is hard to luxuriate over a piece. These riches should be spread out throughout the museum, which would not only force visitors to see other galleries but not be cramped.

Pepper_von_snoot

I was at the MOMA on Saturday with my old, old friend Hecate Harlow for the Lygia Clark exhibit (which was absolutely fabulous) and I was shocked at all the tourists taking selfies in front of the famous paintings (like the Barnett Newman Heroicus Sublimus).

What a nightmare!

These fools walk right into you.

Of course, none of these people even stopped to view a Cy Tombly or Marta.

They all ran right to Picasso or Monet's Water Lilies.

It was like being at Disney World.


Thin

Pepper_von_snoot

Matta.


Thin

bvlenci

It's also true in Rome that there are many museums with world-class art and very few visitors, while the mobs are shuffling shoulder to shoulder through the Vatican Museums. (The Borghese Gallery is almost as bad.)

Last week, I visited three of the four sites of the National Museum of Rome over two days. The ticket, €7, is good for all four sites over three days, and is one of Rome's great bargains. The jewel in the crown is Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, with a superb collection of ancient sculpture, as well as mosaics, and rare wall paintings from the Villa of Livia (wife of Augustus). There is also some lovely Roman jewelry, household goods (including rare intact glass items), coins, and many other interesting exhibits, all described in Italian and English.

Another great bargain is the joint ticket to the Barberini Gallery and the Corsini Gallery for €9. Both are superb museums, with paintings from medieval times to the early modern period, with a focus on the Italian Renaissance. Two incredible collections of great masterpieces.

The last time I was in the Corsini Gallery, we were the only visitors, and I had to go in search of someone to sell us a ticket. This is a museum with works by Caravaggio, the Beato Angelico, Van Dyk, El Greco, Rubens, and many others. It's a very small museum, but with an incredible concentration of great paintings.

There are many other great museums in Rome that nobody seems to have heard of.

Pepper_von_snoot

Oh, yes, I have been to Palazzo Barberini.

Was there in 2009. Walked over from St. Regis Grand.

Loved La Fornarina.

Loved all the Barbarini Bees.

Oh, and the Vatican Museum! What a horrific nightmare! It was something out of Bob Guccione's Caligula.

I kept looking around for Helen Mirren and the donkey.


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bvlenci

I would only go to the Vatican Museums on a midweek afternoon in late January. My husband says he'll never go again, after our last visit.

Sue4

I was at the Louvre in May, and yes, it was crowded, but not impossibly so, if you stay away from the Mona Lisa. I chose to skip the Italian wing altogether this trip, and spent my time elsewhere.
The worse are the huge tour groups being led around, of which there were many. Run, if you see them converging on you!

I really enjoyed the Musee D'Orsay which was crowded but not nearly so as the Louvre. And the Orangerie, Petit Palais were great. Also I love the Marmottan, which is very manageable, although they were having a special Impressionist Exhibition when I was there, so it was thronged with people waiting to get in. Fortunately, I got an advance ticket for that.

PalenQ

they said, the article said, that the Vatican due to the new pope's popularity has had many more visitors this year than before - my God what crowds that must mean - and in the Sistine Chapel that some of the lemming-like tourists are only drawn too, rushing past the many other fascinating exhibits just to say "we've done the Vatican and seen the Sistine Chapel.... here are our selfies to prove it!

I rather do not like much most museums I admit but it is often the lesser known works that fascinate me the most - the most popular I have a jaundiced eye for sometimes - and to me the Mona Lisa, as good art as is it, is no better or whatever criteria is applied to it that makes it the world's most famous painting, than zillion of other items in museums all over Europe.

Ah the Human Comedy in front of the Mona Lisa - folks snapping photos without ever being able to or patient enough to actuall see it.

Maybe put la joconde in its own museum, charge a lot of money and keep the Louvre more comfy? But sans the Mona Lisa I think the Louvre attendance may tumble... ah the Human Comedy!

IMDonehere

Nothing ruins a beautiful place like your face.

The benefit of pop culture is that is brought to you. If you want more than must find it.

travelingaunta

When I visited the Prado, there was quite a crowd for Las Meninas, but the painting's size made a big difference. Much smaller crowds for other parts of the museums.

The selfies are intrusive. Perhaps more museums will adopt the policy I heard at Olympia and Delphi several years back -- "it is not permitted to pose for pictures with the art".

PalenQ

One incident in front of the Louvre - in the mos eastern courtyard - a guy comes up to me furiously waving his hands and barking:

"Mona Lisa" "Mona Lisa"

I start speaking English - he is an American - he explains he is looking for the entrance to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa - that is all he had on his mind - "Mona Lisa" "Mona Lisa!"

I calmed the guy down and said the ticket window was in the next courtyard under the glass pyramid - he dashed over there.

Just shows the single focus of the Louvre for many - no doubt this poor guy made a beeline for the Mona Lisa once inside and dashed past all the other fine art just to do so - probably took a selfie of himself with la joconde - well that would put a smirk on my face as well.

Dukey1

Sorry, but there's an obvious reason a lot of people "camp out" in front of certain works of art. I disagree that people who do this are "missing" anything. There's a lot of art in the Louvre, just as one example, that has absolutely no appeal for me and I don''t mind in the least that I am "missing" it.