Visitor numbers to the National Gallery of Australia have jumped, both in person and online.
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A total 692,432 people walking through the gallery doors in 2011-12, according to the NGA's Annual Report 2011-12, issued yesterday.
It was an increase from the 506,846 visitors the previous year, but was still far below the gallery's astounding success in 2009-2010, which garnered 836,375 visitors. More than 470,000 people visited the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition throughout that period.
Director Ron Radford said the boost in recent numbers could be attributed to the success of the Renaissance exhibition, held at the National Gallery from December 9, 2011 to April 9, 2012.
"Almost 213,000 visitors saw this exhibition of Renaissance paintings, our second highest exhibition attendance in over a decade," he said.
"We sold more than 18,000 catalogues and the exhibition brought an estimated $75 million into the local economy."
Online visitor numbers also increased, with visits to the website up 8 per cent on the previous year to 1.83 million visits. Traffic to the website from mobile devices surged, increasing by more than 300 per cent
The National Gallery also acquired 2112 new works throughout the 12-month period, 1183 of which were gifts.