1.1 million
Annual Visitors
2,500+ works
Collection
2–3 hours
Recommended Visit
Frank Gehry (1997)
Architect
About Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain, with an exhibition of 250 contemporary works of art.
Built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Cantabrian Sea, it is one of several museums belonging to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and features permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists.
It is one of the largest museums in Spain. One of the most admired works of contemporary architecture, the building has been hailed as a 'signal moment in the architectural culture'.
The museum is renowned for its large-scale, site-specific works and installations by contemporary artists, and it has played a key role in the revitalization of the city of Bilbao.
Masterworks & Must-See Highlights
The works that define Guggenheim Museum Bilbao — and why they matter.
The Matter of Time
Richard Serra · 1994–2005
Arcelor Gallery (the Fish Gallery)
Eight enormous weathered steel sculptures — some weighing hundreds of tons — create corridors and ellipses that visitors walk through. The experience of space, gravity, and time inside Serra's forms is unlike anything else in contemporary art.
Tulips
Jeff Koons · 1995–2004
Exterior terrace
A 3-metre-high bouquet of multicoloured balloon-like tulips in mirror-polished stainless steel sits on the riverside terrace. Its gleaming surfaces reflect the building, river, and sky, blurring the boundary between sculpture and environment.
Maman
Louise Bourgeois · 1999
Exterior / terrace
A 9-metre bronze spider guarding a mesh sac of marble eggs. Bourgeois created the giant spider to represent her mother, a weaver — "like a spider, my mother was a friend and a weaver." One of six casts; the Bilbao version is the most visited.
The Knife Ship I
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen · 1985–1986
Arcelor Gallery
A 30-metre-long ship fitted with giant Swiss Army knife blades, sails, and tools. The playful gigantism is quintessential Pop Art — the mundane object rendered monumental and absurd.
Collections & Highlights
Frequently Asked Questions
A small ask before you go
You've just explored one of humanity's greatest collections of beauty. Art has the power to move us, inspire us, and change how we see the world. But millions of people will never see beauty like this — not because the art isn't there, but because they can't see at all.
Preventable blindness, caused by conditions like cataracts and trachoma, affects people of all ages across the world's poorest communities. A small gift — for the cost of a museum ticket — can provide a simple surgery to restore someone's sight and transform their life.