Mirror Image: What to expect at the newly-opened Louvre in Abu Dhabi

On display will be artwork from the museum’s newly acquired collection (the first acquisition was a Piet Mondrian, bought at Christie’s in 2009 for 21 million euros), artefacts and loans from France’s top museums, and some pieces from the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.

From prehistorical objects to commissioned contemporary artwork, the display highlights universal themes and ideas. There is a separate gallery dedicated to world religions, featuring sacred texts: a leaf from the “Blue Quran”, a Gothic Bible, a Pentateuch and texts from Buddhism and Taoism. In addition to the galleries, the Louvre Abu Dhabi includes temporary exhibitions, a children’s museum, a restaurant, a boutique and a café. Visitors walk through the promenades overlooking the sea, beneath the museum’s 180-metre dome, which comprises 8,000 metal stars set in a geometric pattern. When sunlight filters through, it creates a moving “rain of light” beneath the dome, just like the effect created by overlapping palm trees in a typical Arab oasis.

The Louvre art museum, seen from across the Seine River. The Pont Royal bridge crosses the Seine on the left and leads to the Louvre. Both the bridge and the Louvre building are made of tan-colored stones. (Source: Thinkstock images)

Louvre Abu Dhabi is an independent institution, operating as part of an intergovernmental agreement between Abu Dhabi and France. The name of Louvre is licensed for 30.5 years under the agreement. Nouvel has, in fact, created a museum city on the Saadiyat under the vast silvery dome. The goal is to make Saadiyat — and, by extension, Abu Dhabi — a cultural mecca. Next up is the famed Guggenheim Museum from New York City, a performing arts centre, a maritime museum and a museum devoted to the history of the UAE.