A new version of the Parisian Louvre museum is being built in the UAE and is due to be completed by the latter half of 2016. It will be located on Saadiyat Island and will make Abu Dhabi a world cultural centre. The work will cost 23 billion euros and in addition to the famous museum, it will include sports facilities, an amusement arcade, a performance space designed by the architect Zaha Hadid, as well as exclusive villas and luxury hotels.
The project began in 2007 and encompasses plans to open a branch of New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2017. The high levels of investment in this Arab country are proof that a historical change is underway, with museums and cultural spaces starting to expand outside of Europe and the United States. In fact, as stated by the top management of the Parisian museum, “the Abu Dhabi Louvre will be a place for discovery, exchange and education and will play an important social role”.
It will not merely be a branch of a museum, it will be a universal museum with its own personality. It will hire 300 works of art, not just from the Louvre, but also from the Musée d’Orsay: some of the most valuable pieces include “The Fifer” by Manet, “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” by Jacques Louis David, “Woman with a Mirror” by Titian and “La Belle Ferronnière” by Leonardo. Saadiyat Island already boasts a museum designed by the British starchitect Norman Foster, the "Zayed National Museum", which has purchased numerous works of art from the British Museum, especially Egyptian pieces. It is aimed at a national, but also diverse and cosmopolitan audience, with visitors expected from all over the world.