ABSTRACT
Since its opening in 1997 the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has become the nucleus of an international phenomenon that has given rise to considerable international debate concerning the museum and its role in remaking a society, its impact on this one city in the Basque country and its role as a flagship of a development project with local, regional, national, European and global dimensions: a multiplicity of scales hitherto unknown in the museum world. The Basque authorities together with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation established the museum in a sculpture-like building by Frank Gehry & Associates, Inc., and it soon became a landmark and a symbol of the city and was an incredible success with remarkable economic consequences. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao represents a strong bond that holds the whole community and its region together and has raised the city to the forefront of the global art scene at the same time as boosting respect for the importance of museums the world over.
