LOUVRE TOPS WORLD

LOUVRE tops world list with 10 million visitors.

 A music video by Beyonce and Jaz-Z set in the Louvre helped boost visitors number to a record of 10.2 million last year, the most for any museum in history, the Louvre said last Tuesday.

A rebound in tourist numbers to Paris, following a drop after terrorists killed 130 people in the  French Capital in November, 2015, also helped the museum achieve a 25 percent increase in visitors on the previous year.

The Louvre said it was happy at the response to the video by Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z for the song ''APES**T'' in which they perform in front of the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Nilo and other famous artworks.

It has been viewed nearly 150 million times on YouTube.

''It's good to see that these American artists, creators of today, are interested in a museum of archeology and ancient art,'' Louvre Director Jean-Luc Martinez told Reuters.

The Louvre's previous record was 9.7 million visitors, in 2012, when the museum inaugurated its  Islamic Art Section  and held exhibitions on Lenardo da Vinci and Raphael.

Three-quarters of the visitors are foreigners, with about 1.5 million American and and 1 million Chinese tourists. [Agencies]