Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi
France's historical Louvre museum, the home to priceless works like the Mona Lisa, announced Tuesday it will open a new Louvre in Abu Dhabi.
The 30-year agreement, signed by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and the head of Abu Dhabi's tourism authority, Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, opens the way for the Louvre Abu Dhabi to display thousands of works from some of France's best museums, such as the Louvre, the Georges Pompidou Center, the Musee d'Orsay and Versailles.
Those works will be housed in a huge flying saucer-shaped museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, which will be erected on the Abu Dhabi waterfront, opening sometime after 2012.
Abu Dhabi's rulers are positioning the Louvre as the centerpiece of a cultural district expected to attract millions of well-heeled tourists and to diversify its oil-dominated economy.
Abu Dhabi government has agreed to spend a staggering sum to bring the Louvre to the capital. The French government will receive $525 million for use of the Louvre brand alone, plus a gift of $33 million to renovate a wing of the Paris Louvre, which will be named for longtime Emirates ruler Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
The Sheik Zayed wing of the Louvre, in its Pavillion de Flore, will provide a prominent home for Islamic works of art, organizers said.
The further $750 million will be spent to bring French managers and 300 loaned works of art to fill and staff the Louvre Abu Dhabi, as well as to renovate a French palace and fund an artwork restoration center in Paris.
The cost of building Nouvel's museum design has yet to be calculated and is likely to add hundreds of US millions of dollars more to the cost, pushing the overall project close to $2 billion. Nouvel's design looks as a white discus-shaped building with galleries illuminated by shafts of sunlight streaming through irregular-shaped windows in the roof.
Beyond the construction cost is the stratospheric price of buying the artworks that the Louvre Abu Dhabi will need to fill the 260,000 square foot museum once the 30-year loan period with France expires.
New York's Guggenheim Foundation already announced it would build its largest-yet museum in Abu Dhabi, designed by renowned American architect Frank Gehry that will cost more than$400 million.
The Louvre and Guggenheim are two of four museums to be designed by celebrity architects that will anchor a $27 billion cultural district on the currently uninhabited Saadiyat Island just off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The Emirate seeks to draw 3 million upscale tourists by 2015.
Museum officials did not address the issue of nudity in works, but art selection will be done by a committee including Abu Dhabi's rulers.
The 30-year agreement, signed by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and the head of Abu Dhabi's tourism authority, Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, opens the way for the Louvre Abu Dhabi to display thousands of works from some of France's best museums, such as the Louvre, the Georges Pompidou Center, the Musee d'Orsay and Versailles.
Those works will be housed in a huge flying saucer-shaped museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, which will be erected on the Abu Dhabi waterfront, opening sometime after 2012.
Abu Dhabi's rulers are positioning the Louvre as the centerpiece of a cultural district expected to attract millions of well-heeled tourists and to diversify its oil-dominated economy.
Abu Dhabi government has agreed to spend a staggering sum to bring the Louvre to the capital. The French government will receive $525 million for use of the Louvre brand alone, plus a gift of $33 million to renovate a wing of the Paris Louvre, which will be named for longtime Emirates ruler Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
The Sheik Zayed wing of the Louvre, in its Pavillion de Flore, will provide a prominent home for Islamic works of art, organizers said.
The further $750 million will be spent to bring French managers and 300 loaned works of art to fill and staff the Louvre Abu Dhabi, as well as to renovate a French palace and fund an artwork restoration center in Paris.
The cost of building Nouvel's museum design has yet to be calculated and is likely to add hundreds of US millions of dollars more to the cost, pushing the overall project close to $2 billion. Nouvel's design looks as a white discus-shaped building with galleries illuminated by shafts of sunlight streaming through irregular-shaped windows in the roof.
Beyond the construction cost is the stratospheric price of buying the artworks that the Louvre Abu Dhabi will need to fill the 260,000 square foot museum once the 30-year loan period with France expires.
New York's Guggenheim Foundation already announced it would build its largest-yet museum in Abu Dhabi, designed by renowned American architect Frank Gehry that will cost more than$400 million.
The Louvre and Guggenheim are two of four museums to be designed by celebrity architects that will anchor a $27 billion cultural district on the currently uninhabited Saadiyat Island just off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The Emirate seeks to draw 3 million upscale tourists by 2015.
Museum officials did not address the issue of nudity in works, but art selection will be done by a committee including Abu Dhabi's rulers.
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