RALEIGH - The N.C. Museum of Art said farewell Sunday to "Monet in Normandy," the ambitious exhibit of Impressionist paintings that drew visitors from all 50 states and became the most visited art show in state history.

How popular was it? After all the tickets were sold to the 32-hour marathon that closed the exhibition, some online listings for $15 passes exceeded $100. In a museum staff betting pool, curator David Steel made an optimistic guess that 185,000 people would visit. The final number was 214,177.

The big tallies were spurred by solid sell-outs from late December through the end of the exhibit. Even in the wee hours Sunday morning, the museum was packed.

N.C. State University students Katie Magee, 21, and Brian Bouterse, 22, were determined to keep their 2 a.m. date with Monet. When their blue Buick Regal broke down a mile from the museum, they called friends for a ride. They made it to the museum just 13 minutes late.

"It was worth it," Magee said. "We're calling AAA in the morning."

The next most popular show in museum history, based on tickets issued, was a 2000 exhibit of Auguste Rodin sculpture. Rodin had 189,213 ticketed visitors in 17 weeks, while Monet drew 202,286 in 14 weeks. An additional 12,000 Monet visitors attended unticketed events, such as a free preview day.

"Because he's so popular, some of my colleagues think, 'Oh, Monet,' " Steel said. "But in spending time with these pictures, you realize he deserved his rep. That, for me, has been the greatest revelation of this show."

"Monet in Normandy" was billed as the kind of big-city blockbuster that might raise Raleigh's profile as a cultural destination -- and make it a magnet for tourist dollars. Martin Armes of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau said his group originally estimated Monet would generate $12 million for hotels, restaurants and other local businesses. The actual total will greatly exceed the figure when the information is released Thursday, Armes said.

Armes praised the Monet show for generating as much buzz as economic activity.

"In many respects, the Monet exhibition shows that culture is on par with the great sports that we have in the Triangle, whether it's college basketball or the Hurricanes," he said.

The exhibit also produced at least one love story. On a group tour organized by a gallery in Oriental, Ashton Whipple, a 78-year-old painter, was drawn to a 62-year-old art lover.

"Somewhere about the third Monet, we got to chatting," Whipple said. "By the time we got to the final Monets, we were holding hands."

She became Jacqueline Whipple three weeks later.

"We blamed it all on Monet," Ashton Whipple said.

Museum staff wearily but cheerily plodded through the final hours. At 4 a.m. Sunday, the museum's chief financial officer, Caterri Woodrum, worked a register in the exhibition store, where shoppers grabbed items as museum staffers brought them to the shelves. By the show's close, many shelves were bare. Visitors had snapped up more than 10,000 show catalogs, 1,200 tie-dye T-shirts and more than 1,500 packages of water lilies napkins.

"I have been doing this for 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this before," said a worn-out Emily Rosen, the museum's director of visitor services and czarina of the shop.

"It all just escalated ... profusely."

The throngs finally began to thin about 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

At 4:45, just five minutes before guards closed the gate to the exhibit, a white-haired man in a black shirt and black jacket slipped into the show and lifted an audio tour guide to his ear. It was Larry Wheeler, the museum director.

He hadn't had time to do the tour earlier.

Other visitors walked back through the galleries for a last look at a favorite painting: "Snow Effect at Giverny" or "The Needle Rock and the Porte d'Aval." They could finally appreciate the canvases from a distance.

"It's just been great coming down and seeing the expressions on people's faces," Wheeler said. "I'm going to miss having the people here every day. But they'll come back."