The Art Newspaper has listed the 30 most visited museum exhibitions worldwide for the 2008- 2009 season. Topping the list are four blockbusters at Japanese museums.

Shows on twentieth-century masters ranked high including Kandinsky at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Joan Miró at MoMA in New York. MoMA, in fact, dominated the list with eight shows focusing on single artists from van Gogh to James Ensor.

One surprise: An exhibition on British grafitti artist Banksy at the Museum of Bristol achieved over 4,000 visits per day, ranking the museum on the list for the first time. The artist literelly overtook the museum with his wry take on classical art, including replacing an enquiries desk with a burnt out ice cream truck.