Construction of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art in the Basque city of Bilbao, opened in October 1997. It was designed by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, whose building is clad in curving sheets of titanium, glass and limestone and sits on the bank of the Nervión River. The project was funded by the Basque government and run in partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, as part of an effort to revitalize a declining industrial port city. The museum was immediately a popular and critical success, attracting large numbers of visitors and giving rise to the phrase Bilbao effect, used for the way a landmark building can transform a city's economy and image. It holds works by artists such as Richard Serra, Jeff Koons and Louise Bourgeois.

Open on the timeline