A SUNDERLAND museum will compete with international attractions to become European Museum of the Year.
The Museum and Winter Gardens is one of six attractions nominated to represent England in the annual award, judged next March.
It opened to the public in July last year after more than two years of redevelopment work and last Tuesday welcomed its 500,000th visitor.
The attraction has already won a host of awards, including a Civic Trust Green Flag and the Associate Landscape Contractors' of America Grand Award.
Neil Sinclair, senior curator, said: "The number of people that have visited and the positive response we have had, backed by the awards we have won, have shown that the Museum and Winter Gardens has been a huge success.
"The fact that we have now been nominated for the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award is testimony to that success.
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