Monet show leaves big impression

The show was visited by more than 8,000 people every day

The Royal Academy's Monet in the 20th Century exhibition has set a new record for a UK art event after attracting more than 800,000 visitors.

The London display - which ended on Sunday evening after a record-breaking 34 hour viewing - was seen by a total of 813,000 people.

An Academy spokeswoman said the average daily attendance was 8,552.

And the number of people to visit the gallery over the final weekend was put at 40,000.

The Academy also became the first UK gallery to open an art exhibition through 24 hours. Organisers said 8,689 people trooped round between 2300BST on Saturday and 0800BST the following morning.

24-hour opening is a UK first for a major exhibition

The £1.8m cost of staging the exhibition was overshadowed by the £3.9m taken through ticket office receipts.

Academy President Sir Philip Dowson said: "The Royal Academy's exhibition - so highly acclaimed - has changed the perception of this great artist's contribution to 20th Century art.

"The examples of his less known masterpieces from the last decade of his life have been particularly revealing."

Claude Monet, regarded as one of the greatest exponents of Impressionism, lived from 1840-1926.

The gallery brought together, for the first time, 79 paintings from his later works, assembled from public and private collections around the world.