The Louvre opened a second museum in Abu Dhabi on November 8th, 2017. In addition to its formidable permanent collection of over 600 rare art works, the museum also houses collections from 13 different French museums including the Musée D'Orsay, the first exhibition of Da Vinci's painting "La bell ferronnière" outside of Europe, and Van Gogh's self portrait. Ancient art accounts for majority of the works in the museum, such as the 6th century Koran, the medieval bible, and the Yemeni Torah. Contemporary and modern art accounts for only 5% of the museum's collection, including work by Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei. The collection houses everything from graphic paintings to installation art, spanning a great variety of artworks.
It is worth noting that last month Christie's auctioned Da Vinci's for a record-setting 450 million USD (approximately 13.5 billion NT), and it was recently revealed that the buyer was Saudi Arabian Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud. The work will be on display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It has been reported that the value of this collaboration between France and the UAE is as high as 1.1 billion USD, including almost 500 million USD to obtains the rights to use the Louvre name. The building was designed by French architect and winner of the Pritzker award, Jean Nouvel, and cost the country approximately 6 million Euro to build. The architecture was inspired by the ancient Arab city of Medina. The structure is dominated by white, with light streaming in through the roof’s hollow silver dome, surrounded by waters of the Persian Gulf
The United Arab Emirates is also planning to showcase their love of the arts in the future through a Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, as well as through the Zayed National Museum.
Photo 1: Louvre Abu Dhabi Photo © Louvre Abu Dhabi Official Website
Photo 2: Leonardo. Da Vinci, , Sold: USD 450,312,500. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2017
Photo 3: Prince Bader, taken from Arab News
Photo 4: Louvre Abu Dhabi Photo gallery of the Louvre Abu Dhabi © Louvre, Abu Dhabi Official website
