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Louvre Abu Dhabi Ready by 2013

ABU DHABI — After years of planning, the iconic cultural name of France made its transition to concrete in the UAE, as the first brick was finally laid on Tuesday for the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum in the Cultural District of Saadiyat Island.

Louvre in Paris is home to Leonardo da Vinci’s smiling maiden, the “Mona Lisa”, among other priceless pieces of art from around the world.

“Louvre Abu Dhabi is the link between the UAE and France, whose relationship grow stronger through this undertaking,” said Shaikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of Tourism, Development and Investment Company (TDIC), the developer of Saadiyat Island. The groundbreaking event was led by Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

They also inaugurated an exhibition on “Talking Art: Louvre Abu Dhabi,” at which works of art from the Louvre and other French museums will be on display until July 2 at Emirates Palace hotel. Also on show are some of the new museum’s first acquisitions.

Scheduled for completion by 2013, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s building is a contemporary one, designed by Jean Nouvel, the architect of Lyon Opera House and the Galleries Lafayette in Berlin.

The museum will be a complex of pavilions, plazas, alleyways and canals, evoking the image of a city floating on the sea. The Agence France – Museums (AFM) will work exclusively to bring works of art, from pre-Christianity era to present day and with origins from all corners of the world, to Louvre Abu Dhabi for around one year for each piece. The AFM will source the exhibits from a group of French museums such as the Centre Pompidou, Musee d’Orsay, Guimet, Quai Branly and, of course, Louvre itself.

“Louvre Abu Dhabi will not be a copy of the Louvre in Paris. It will be a universal museum, a new invention, with its own collection and its own spirit. It is designed for people living in this country and it will show the links between different cultures, as well as having an educational content,” Bruno Maquart, director-general of AFM, said.

All works of art, and the name, will be loaned to Louvre Abu Dhabi for a period of 12 years, during which the museum will create its own collection and will come up with its own distinctive name.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com