Louvre Abu Dhabi Bridges Civilizations
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A decade ago the French architect Jean Nouvel sketched the bare outlines of a fretted dome on flimsy paper. Today this enormous metallic- silver canopy rises over desert sands and the Persian Gulf — marking the new Louvre Abu Dhabi museum and the global ambitions of France and the United Arab Emirates to deploy art as a diplomatic tool they call “soft power.”
The vast dome and clusters of waterfront galleries beneath it opened on November 11. It’s been a long wait with five years of construction delays and technical challenges to build the estimated $ 650 million flagship on Saadiyat Island.
And the museum’s history is also turbulent — a saga of economic downturn, collapsing oil prices, regional political tensions and fierce French intellectual debates about the risks of lending its national treasures to the Middle East in exchange for petrodollars. Through it all the Louvre Abu Dha- bi has brought together East and West and also managed to unite France’s fractious national museums.
Since the opening date was announced in September, planes have been roaring out of Paris about every two days for Abu Dhabi, carrying national treasures. The artworks included a self- portrait of van Gogh, Monet’s 1877 painting of the Saint-Lazare railroad station and Napoleon himself — a portrait of the emperor crossing the Alps on a horse, by Jacques-Louis David.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is the result of a 2007 accord between France and the U. A. E., which is leasing the Louvre brand for about $464 million for more than 30 years. Eventually it will pay a total of 974 million euros for French expertise and loans. In return, 17 French museums and institutions shipped 300 artworks here this year.
“Soft power is now the catchword of all diplomats” said Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh, the U. A.E. minister of state, who was an adviser from the beginning when the museum site was inhabited by nesting turtles and seashells. “It means it is no longer sufficient to have military or economic power if you are not able to share your values. Exchange — this is what soft power is about.”
The Emirates’ ultimate aim is to promote the capital as a tolerant global city, and its flagship museum as a bridge between civilizations.
“The priority is to invest heavily in education and culture,” Mr. Nusseibeh said. “This has become more important because of what happened with the radicalization of groups that have kidnapped Islam” for their own political purposes.
Jean- Luc Martinez, director of the Louvre Museum, said the project had already had a dramatic effect in France. “Thanks to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, our museums were forced to work together after 50 years of development.”
“We have some egos,” he added, with Gallic understatement. “That’s a revolution in mentality.”