Abu Dhabi’s Louvre imports Paris prestige

In oil-rich, gas-rich Abu Dhabi they’ll have a lot to celebrate next week. A four-nights-long show, starting Nov. 11, will herald the grand opening of a big and ambitious museum, Louvre Abu Dhabi. This is no less than an attempt to transplant from Paris to the capital of the United Arab Emirates some of the prestige that the Louvre in Paris has been building since it was converted from a palace into an art gallery in the 1790s.

Abu Dhabi, which has money, is sending hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to a great European museum that (like most museums) is always short of cash. The money covers the use of the Louvre brand, rental of many famous paintings for years to come, and a lot of management and artistic advice.

Naturally, all cultural institutions opening branches in the Middle East make it clear that their intentions are on the highest possible cultural and professional level. New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), for instance, says it educates students who are true citizens of the world. Its publicity declares it “will be one of the world’s great research universities.” Nothing less than that would satisfy Abu Dhabi.

In 2007, the creation of Louvre Abu Dhabi was announced in the French parliament, to be completed by 2012. That deadline was missed and in early 2013 a revised completion date of 2015 was promised. That too was missed, so 2016 was cited, to be replaced eventually by November 2017, next week.

French management has even played a part in next week’s party, which turns out to be resolutely multicultural. A Franco-Vietnamese guitarist will play with Korea’s Baraji Ensemble. The Dogon Masks Dance will be performed by Mali’s Awa Troupe. There’ll be a light show and a fly-past of Etihad A380 passenger jets. The Grammy-winning French superstar who goes by the name “–M–” will have a prominent place on the bill. Fatoumata Diawara will combine the traditions of her native Mali with funk. haven’t got it, the sensible solution is to import it. Words like artificial, ersatz, faux, knock-off, etc. hold no fear for these people.

It sounds like the creation of intellectual colonialism, an unfortunate parallel to the colonialism that their grandparents threw off. But they have found a way to rescue a measure of independence by arguing that their Louvre will be quite different from the one in Paris — different and (though they don’t quite say so) better.

They have a slogan they’ve spread across the internet: “The Louvre Abu Dhabi invites visitors to see humanity in a new light.” They speak of their project as a universal museum encouraging a world consciousness. Those who visit it will be comparing a sculpture from Central Asia in 3,000 BCE to an Ottoman helmet and a monumental 1957 work by Ai Weiwei. The director, Manuel Rabaté, says that “Creativity, crosscultural understanding and humanity’s innate fascination with discovering new ideas and traditions from around the world are at the heart of Louvre Abu Dhabi’s ethos.”

That ethos already has some supporters. Peter Frankopan, the Oxford historian who recently wrote The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, sees the centre of civilization moving eastward in the 21st century, as long-distance trade has in past centuries shifted across the Eurasian continent, following the commerce and faith of Islam. Not surprisingly, Frankopan’s vision appeals to anyone promoting the United Arab Emirates. Publicity material on the Louvre Abu Dhabi quotes Frankopan: “The age of the West is at an end; it’s a new world that we live in.” In Abu Dhabi they believe they are making a new museum for a new world.

But since there are few museums in the region, there are few trained curators. No problem. The Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi has now established itself in town and the Louvre Abu Dhabi is working on a master’s program with the Sorbonne to train museum professionals and help them respond to local needs. Like most things in the resourcerich countries, expertise can be purchased.