GUGGENHEIM BILBAO

Bilbao, Spain

Few art museums can claim as close a link with their location as the Guggenheim Bilbao – and fewer yet their own phenomenon. Measured in cold, hard metrics like visitor numbers and economic growth, ‘The Guggenheim Effect’ refers to the uplift in fortunes for the Basque city after it unveiled the gallery. With a fluid, billowing structure by Frank Gehry that swiftly became his best-known work, it’s won the approval of critics and crowds of tourists alike, and proved an arts hub can provide a convincing draw for even the most unlikely destination. It’s now perhaps more monument than museum – few are as fussed about its contents as that shimmering façade. guggenheim-bilbao.eus