Abu Dhabi Opens Own Version of the Louvre

by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:55 PM ET, Thu September 7, 2017

While it would be hard for any museum to truly compare to the massive and legendary Louvre in Paris, officials in Abu Dhabi are prepared to try with their own franchise version of the original.

After years of delays, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is scheduled to open in November, according to Bloomberg.

The Middle East iteration of the famed museum has been designed to speak to everybody, Mohammed Al Mubarak, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, said.

"It's not going to speak to a specific culture or to specific people,'' Al Mubarak told Bloomberg TV.

Rather, he said, the museum has been created to "tell a story of our existence'' and "will showcase cultural pride wherever you're from.''

The museum has been constructed with a web-patterned dome designed to appear as though it's hovering above the water on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island. Made from layers of steel, the dome will filter sunlight to the interior galleries. Those galleries will house antiquities from various centuries and continents, according to Bloomberg.

The fact that the museum is finally opening is significant after years of delays amid declining oil prices. The project was first announced in 2007, according to the New York Times, and has had a variety of projected opening dates since then: First 2012, then 2013 and later 2015.

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The Louvre Abu Dhabi will mark its opening with a special inaugural exhibition, "From One Louvre to Another," beginning Dec. 21. The exhibit will showcase the history of Musée du Louvre in Paris, from the royal collections at Versailles under King Louis XIV to the creation of the modern museum.

The museum's permanent collection will include both ancient and modern works of art. Highlights include a Bactrian princess created in Central Asia that dates to the end of the 3rd millennium B.C., an Ottoman turban helmet and Paul Gauguin's "Children Wrestling," the New York Times reported.

Construction of the museum is part of a larger attempt by the state to ramp up tourism. The goal is to attract more than 8.5 million visitors annually by 2020. To help reach that figure, Abu Dhabi has been busy building hotels, theme parks and malls.

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