|
 Surrounded by water from three sides, the
museum houses 600 artworks it has acquired, alongside 300 works
on loan from 13 leading French institutions, in its 23 permanent
galleries. The artists range from Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van
Gogh to Pablo Picasso and Cy Twombly.
French President Emmanuel Macron will be the guest of honor at
the opening, along with other heads of state.
"It is a lot more than just a museum. It is a center of peace,
acceptance, tolerance and education," Mohamed al-Mubarak,
chairman of the department of culture and tourism in Abu Dhabi,
told Reuters.
Permanent installations include a sculpture by Auguste Rodin, an
enormous bronze tree with mirrored branches called "leaves of
light" by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone and three engravings on
stone walls bearing historic texts from the region by Jenny
Holzer, an American neo-conceptual artist.
And there are priceless pieces. They include a statue of the
Sphinx dating back to the 6th century B.C., 13 fragments of a
frieze that reveals Surah al Hashr from the Holy Quran and a
marble bust of Alexander the Great.
Among the paintings is one by Leonardo DaVinci, done between
1495 and 1499 and called La Belle Ferronniere, or Portrait of an
Unknown Woman, which was recently restored and is on loan from
the original Musee du Louvre in Paris.
[to top of second column] |
The Abu Dhabi museum was set up under a 2007 inter-governmental
agreement between Paris and Abu Dhabi. Originally slated to open in
2012, it was delayed by the global financial crisis and then by low
oil prices, which led the United Arab Emirates to rein in spending.
Louvre Abu Dhabi has partnered with museums and cultural
institutions in the Arab world, who will lend 28 significant works.
Among them are an 8,000-year-old, two-headed figure called the Ain
Ghazal statue from Jordan, some 400 silver dirham coins from Oman
and a pre-historic stone tool from Saudi Arabia.
Having invested over $1 billion in the museum, Abu Dhabi is hoping
culture will attract tourists. Two more museums, Guggenheim Abu
Dhabi and Zayed National Museum, are planned around the Louvre Abu
Dhabi in the Saadiyat Cultural District that already hosts art
fairs, exhibitions and performances.
"Culture is the element that will distinguish us from others," said
Saif Saeed Ghobash, director-general of the emirate’s Department of
Culture & Tourism. "We will attract a different kind of traveler."
The entrance ticket to the museum is 60 dirhams ($16.30) with all
5,000 tickets sold out for the opening day.
(Reporting By Stanley Carvalho, editing by Larry King)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
