MADRID.- José Ignacio Wert, the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, presided over the signing of an agreement through which Telefónica is renewing its sponsorship of the Museo del Prado for another four years. Telefónica’s renewal of its commitment as sponsor of the Prado’s Visitor Attention programme is particularly significant today, when the Museum has increased its opening hours to every day of the year with the exception of three major public holidays. This initiative, which is a direct response to the general growth in interest in the Museum’s collections and activities that has manifested itself over the last few years in a marked rise in visitors, starting from the time of the inauguration of the Prado’s extension in October 2007, can be directly associated with the improvements and increase in visitor services that have been made over this period, the implementation of which has been possible thanks to Telefónica. Since 2007, more than 13 million visitors have directly benefited from the Visitor Attention service. More than 2.9 million of them visited the Museum last year, which was the year that saw a record number of visitors to the Museo del Prado.