Over half a million people visited the Matisse Picasso exhibition, making it the most popular ever in the Tate Gallery's history.

The box office sold 467,166 tickets and some 40,000 people have attended events outside of gallery hours. The special 36-hour opening to complete the run of the exhibition was attended by 16,775 visitors and included talks in the gallery by jazz legend George Melly, Elizabeth Cowling, curator of the exhibition and art historian and television presenter Tim Marlow.

Visitors, many of whom queued past 2am to gain access to the exhibition, greeted the Tate's first experiment in all-night opening with almost universal enthusiasm.

Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, said it was a fantastic end to the exhibition: 'The huge numbers are an indication that while Matisse and Picasso are clearly popular, this show in particular has been a revelation.

'We are fortunate to have been able to work with the national galleries in Paris and New York and I am confident that it will be equally popular in both those cities.'