Which is the largest museum in the world?

The Louvre in Paris is generally considered the largest art museum in the world, with more than 70,000 square metres of exhibition space. It began life as a royal fortress and palace, and opened as a public museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. It is also the most visited museum on Earth, typically welcoming around 9 million visitors a year. If you count museum complexes, the Smithsonian Institution in the United States is bigger still, with 21 museums, a national zoo and a collection of well over 150 million objects. St Petersburg’s Hermitage is another giant, holding around 3 million items.