Last February 10th, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao closed its exhibition of works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, which became the second-most visited show in the museum's history, with more then 166,500 visitors.
Additionally, in 2012 the museum saw a record number of visitor in all its areas: 295,655.
The Botero exhibition surpassed the 2009 Joaquín Sorolla show, which recorded 154,000 visits. It is bested only by Antonio López's exhibition, which had 209,500 visitors.
The 79 paintings and one sculpture on display, belonging to the artist's personal collection, enabled visitors to approach his trajectory within a thematic and chronological framework. The sculpture, weighing one and a half tons, was installed on Bilbao's Gran Vía, a very central artery, in front of the museum.