Louvre Moves To Abu Dhabi
Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were on hand to mark the recent groundbreaking of the Middle East’s first universal museum - Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and due for completion by 2013.
To celebrate the occasion, Etihad Crystal Cargo shipped a collection of masterpieces from the Louvre in Paris.
The Talking Art Louvre Abu Dhabi exhibition, which runs until August 29 at the Emirates Palace hotel, includes 19 works of art bought over the last 18 months, as well as loans from French museums. The purchases include a Greek ceramic figure from around 520 B.C. and two 1862 canvases by Edouard Manet. There is also a standing bodhisattva from the second to third century A.D and a canvas by Jean-François de Troy, “Esther Fainting Before Ahaseurus,” from 1730.
According to reports, Abu Dhabi will pay France $555 million for the use of the Louvre's name, art loans, exhibitions and management advice.
