‘GEOMETRY WITH LIGHTS’

French architect Jean Nouvel was inspired by the island’s position “between sand and sea, shade and light,” the Louvre Web site says.

“I also wanted to play on this idea of openness, that of a desert open to the sea,” the winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize told AFP in September.

The site comprises 55 white buildings reminiscent of traditional Arab medinas.

Two-thirds of the museum is covered by a dome, 180 meters in diameter, which provides welcome shade from the scorching Gulf sun.

Pierced with 7,850 star- like openings formed by the layering of the building’s structure, like interwoven palm leaves, the dome is intended to resemble silver lace.

“For me, great Arab architecture ( is) geometry with lights,” Nouvel said.

As the museum put it, “sun filters through the dome like a delicate,

30-YEAR ACCORD

The museum’s price tag was initially estimated at $654 million, to be put up by Abu Dhabi under a deal signed with France in 2007.

But costs have risen due to funding and construction delays.

Under the 30-year agreement, France provides expertise, loans works of art, and organises temporary exhibitions — in return for €1 billion ($1.16 billion).

The Louvre in France takes a €400-million share of that sum for the use of its name up to 2037.

For the next 10 years, the Paris museum will lend works to its Abu Dhabi partner on a voluntary basis, for a maximum of two years.

For its permanent collection, the museum has acquired hundreds of pieces, dating from the earliest Mesopotamian civilizations to the present day.

Thirteen top French museums, including the Musee d’Orsay and the Palace of Versailles, will also loan the Louvre Abu Dhabi 300 works of art over the first year.

These include Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronniere, Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David, and a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh. —