Picasso Museum - audio guide or no?

I took a tour offered by the city tourist office that included entry to the Picasso Museum, and I don't think I used the audio guide--at least I have no memory of it, so I cannot comment on its quality. Perhaps it will help you make the decision to know that the Picasso Museum is highly popular and can be massively crowded. The day I went (summer of 2016), conditions were like scenes you may have seen in old movies of cocktail parties in small Manhattan apartments. It was difficult to move through the crowds and get close enough to the wall to see the labels beside the pictures. If you can read the audio guide numbers (I assume they use those), having the guide might make up for difficulty reading the descriptive labels.

I would view an audio guide as a big asset. As noted above, maybe you cannot get as close as to be able to see any info near the picture. Picasso is one of the greatest artist ever. Lots,of periods, lots of works. An audio guide would have so much more info than you could read. I guess it depends on how much knowledge you have of Picasso now.
What is the cost? Is it prohibitive?
I think not.

Get the audio. This is picasso’s early stuff and the audio explains the significance. We felt the audio was well worth the small price. We had no problems with the audio device.

No advice on Picasso, but I noticed a quirk on several of the “iffy” audio guides in Seville, Cordova and Granada.

If listening on a phone or museum supplied device with ear buds connected by a cable, don’t allow the cable to touch the front of the phone/audio device. It seems to short circuit the audio and causes the sound to go on and off. Very irritating - I even needed restarts before I figured out the cause of the disruptions.

I visited the museum with their guided tour and it was worth it. So that’s another option to consider.

Thanks to all who contributed. You’re right - it’s not a lot extra so I got all tickets with the audio guide. Thank you for the notice that it may be so crowded that we won’t be able to read the labels. We are going the Wednesday after Easter.

It would be great if you'd come back after your trip and let us know what conditions were like in the museum. My trip was so long ago (2016)...I'd like to have a report on a more current experience.

I used the audioguide first week of October 2023. We were able to read the posted information since there weren't many visitors at our morning entry time. The audioguide was great for more in-depth information. So glad we purchased the inexpensive option.