by Jon Lackman | 7 March 2007 | Museums
From the AP: “France’s storied Louvre museum, home to priceless art works like the Mona Lisa, said today it will open a new Louvre in this Persian Gulf boomtown, prompting outcries from some who accuse the museum of shilling France’s patrimony for $1.3 billion in oil money. The 30-year agreement, signed by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and the head of Abu Dhabi’s tourism authority, Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, opens the way for the Louvre Abu Dhabi to display thousands of works from some of France’s best museums, such as the Louvre, the Georges Pompidou Center, the Musee d’Orsay and Versailles. The works will be housed in a huge flying saucer-shaped museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, which will be erected on the Abu Dhabi waterfront, opening sometime after 2012.”
