Back in 2007 when it was announced that a new Guggenheim museum was being built in Abu Dhabi, ultra-modern city of the Arab Emirates, the meandering news of the possibility of creating also a new Louvre in the wealthy Arab country seemed quite plausible. In fact the notification was revealed to be well-founded and was confirmed in the following months: the agreement between the Louvre and the Arab Emirates has been sealed and signed by the French Minister for Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and the person in charge of tourism in Abu Dhabi, sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan.

The opening of the new museum is scheduled for 2012 and the building will be realized on the island of Saadiyat (which means the island of happiness), artificial island 500 metres from Abu Dhabi, already conceived as the exhibition pole for the Guggenheim Museum, the Park of the Biennial with 19 pavilions, the Nautical Museum, a museum of classical art and a complex of theatres for concerts ad shows.
On the basis of the digital project realized by architect Jean Nouvel, already renowned for the building of the Musée du quai Branly, Paris museum dedicated to tribal art, the new luxury building of Abu Dhabi will look like a huge flying disk, surrounded by water and palm trees, and will offer visitors no less than 2,000 square metres of space.
The total value of the entire operation is worth 700 million euros, amount that does not seem to represent a problem for the Arab Emirates, that have already talked about a “potentially unlimited” budget only for the acquisitions of the Guggenheim, remark that alarmed the outgoing director of the Guggenheim foundation, Thomas Krens, about the possible risk that dealers may increase prices.
Of course, even a large museum machine like the Louvre, to grant its name, must have been gratified by the prospect of a substantial profit, without forgetting to impose limits and demand necessary requirements for the good outcome of such an important event.
These are the prerequisite conditions demanded by the French museum, and accepted by the gulf emirate. The emirate will pay out 1 billion euros for the next 20 years to the Agence France-Muséum, which will administer the money so that a consortium of French museums can benefit from it, and 40% of this amount will be destined to the Louvre. Another task of the Agence France-Muséum will be to take care of the superintendency of the building of the new museum, it will be responsible for the training of new curators and administrators and, furthermore, it will engage in drawing up an ethical statute, according to which all the works will have to be of accurate and verified provenance.
The number of loans will not be very high: there will be about 300 for the first year, 250 after 4 years, 200 after 7 years, and there will be the cessation of loans after 10 years, as established. Apparently the works will be articulated in the exhibition spaces according to a thematic criterion, therefore there will be a succession of areas dedicated to different subjects, such as landscapes, portraits, etc. and a portion of space will be dedicated to contemporary art as element of transmission between the features of ancient art and those of more recent artistic expressions.
All the works will have the guarantee of non-liability to seizure within the Arab Emirates, and none of the latter will be allowed to take on a similar initiative using the name of the Louvre.
For the acquisition of the collection, the gulf emirate should appropriate 40 million euros, but as for the Guggenheim, the wealthy emirate would not have problems in investing a higher amount. The annual budget for exhibitions will be 13 million euros. For the extra expenses that the Arab country will have to sustain, we should mention that the Louvre, apart from receiving 400 million euros, will collect other 25 million for the enlargement of the Pavillon de Flore and the Agence France-Muséum will have other 165 million euros for its services, besides the billion already allocated for the whole project.

translated by Giorgina Arcuri