Louvre museum to build branch in UAE

[babylonsister]

Clued in by Bill Maher. Culture for Halliburton?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-06-louvre-abu-dhabi_N.htm

By Osayd Hasan, Reuters


ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — France's storied Louvre museum, the world's premier shrine to art and home to priceless works like the Mona Lisa, announced Tuesday it will open a new Louvre in the Persian Gulf boomtown of Abu Dhabi.

French purists decried the move, saying the museum is 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.

Those 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.

Abu Dhabi's rulers are positioning the Louvre as the centerpiece of a cultural district expected to attract millions of well-heeled tourists and to diversify its oil-dominated economy.

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[Trajan]

1. Something for the iconoclasts to burn later .....

Nuff said ....

[babylonsister]

2. Knowledge isn't always power. nt

[JCMach1]

3. Oh please, you have no idea...

The UAE is a tiny, peaceful, but very wealthy country.

Because it is so new (since 1971), museums are few and far between.

This is about culture. MANY people will be glad to have a branch of the Louvre here.