Louvre Abu Dhabi: A museum city that combines the Arab essence with contemporary design. This newly-opened museum is home to over 620 masterpieces that demand appreciation, as well as sincere attention to all the details that created a bond between East and West.
This fresh addition to Abu Dhabi was designed by award-winning architect, Jean Nouvel, and cost around $1 billion to construct over ten years. It has been seriously anticipated by many since the agreement to export the Louvre brand to the Gulf was signed in 2007 between the UAE and France.
What many do not know, however, is that the agreement was based on a diplomatic arrangement. The Louvre brand has been leased for approximately 30 years, allowing the Louvre Abu Dhabi to use the name and borrow works from not only them, but a number of other museums and institutions in France. All this, merely to give time for the new museum to assemble its permanent collection and become a new addition in art’s global history.