Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum is, without doubt, the most instantly recognisable museum in the world. Its sinuous, shimmering exterior, clad in wafer-thin titanium and widely acknowledged as the masterpiece of its architect Frank Gehry, catapulted the building to international stardom when it opened in 1997. The museum was planned as the cornerstone of the ambitious redevelopment of the struggling industrial city by the Basque government and local council. But few people can have anticipated what a huge sensation the museum would create, nor that cities across the world would soon be lining up to try to emulate its success. And if proof were needed of the museum’s regenerative powers, in its first 10 years, the Guggenheim’s 10m visitors spent a staggering €1.6bn in the city.

The museum’s director, former tax inspector Juan Ignacio Vidarte, has been in charge since the early planning stages, helping to win round residents who were resistant to the idea of spending €100m on a cultural behemoth rather than on hospitals, schools or job creation. He has been responsible for acquiring for the permanent collection works by most of the big hitters of the late twentieth century art scene, including Yves Klein, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, Clyfford Still, Antoní Tapies, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. Vidarte has also spearheaded the museum’s as yet unsuccessful campaign to bring Picasso’s Guernica to the region that inspired it. Collections spoke to Vidarte about the museum’s remarkable success, its future plans and its impact on the international scene.