Alexander the great

You can expect more frock shows in our art galleries and museums. Te Papa has already been in this particular game and is aiming for even bigger crowds in December with Unveiled, a survey of 200 years worth of wedding dresses, pimped with celebrity examples, from around the world. As Te Papa admits, the exhibition 'shows the huge media and public appetite for celebrity weddings' (in Australia it was shown exclusively at the Bendigo Art Gallery) but it comes from the V&A so there you go.

What is exciting museums obsessed by bums through the door is the huge success of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty that has just wrapped up at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The huge attendances (it is the eighth most popular show the Met has ever mounted) are up there with names that gave the word 'blockbuster' its allure: Mona Lisa, Picasso, Tutankhamen.

As for the McQueen numbers, they're enough to make any museum marketer salivate. Attendances topped 650,000, over half a million more than the Met's most popular fashion show to date. Over 23,000 people paid for museum membership so they could jump the queue. 17,000 paid $61 to visit on Monday when the museum is usually closed. The catalogue alone grossed $1.5 million.
Source Artinfo