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January 17, 2019

A look back: A 1994 exhibition is a blockbuster for PMA

The Portland Museum of Art’s summer of 1994 exhibition, “Rodin,” featuring the works of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, turned out to be a blockbuster.

The show attracted 52,507 visitors over a 14-week period, bringing in $300,000 in revenue.

More than half of the attendees, 52%, came from out of state.

“Past studies tell the museum that an out-of-stater will spend something between $20 and $250 at local shops, restaurants, businesses and hotels,” Mainebiz wrote at the time. “That means ‘Rodin’ gives the city a boost of something over $500,000 and probably substantially more.”

While considered a blockbuster, it did not surpass the museum’s record established by a 1991 exhibit, on French Impressionism. That show attracted 60,000 people.

Fun fact: Shares of IDEXX Laboratories (NASDAQ: IDXX) traded at $31.50 in December 1994. More recently, shares traded at $188.14.

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