Macron to attend Louvre opening
Abu Dhabi museum features more than 600 permanent artworks and other pieces on loan
Within a fortnight, the long wait to the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi will end, with the iconic museum opening its doors to the public on November 11.
The universal museum will share human stories, across cultures and civilisations, and in that spirit, its opening will be marked by the visit of French dignitaries to the capital, including President Emmanuel Macron.
State news media WAM announced that the French head of state is set to grace the museum’s official opening ceremony, which is scheduled for November 8. Other VIP tours will then be scheduled until November 11. A press visit is also planned for November 7.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is the result of a 2007 intergovernmental agreement between the UAE and France. The agreement includes the loan of the Louvre Museum’s name for 30 years and six months, its temporary exhibitions for 15 years, and loans of artwork for a decade. The museum, one of four planned for the capital’s Saadiyat Island, will be the first to open.
The 97,000-square-metre facility has collected more than 600 artworks to date, including Ottoman daggers, Hindu figurines, and works by French painter Edouard Manet and Ottoman art expert Osman Hamdi Bey. Many of these will be exhibited alongside 300 works on loan from 13 leading French institutions that have partnered with Louvre Abu Dhabi, such as the Orsay Museum and modern art institution, Centre Pompidou. Among the loaned artworks are pieces by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh.
The announcement in September of the museum’s opening date was also attended by numerous dignitaries, including French Minister of Culture, Francoise Nyssen. She said that the Louvre Abu Dhabi marked a milestone in the development of the cooperation between the UAE and France.