First universal museum in the Arab world
Born from a landmark 2007 cultural partnership between France and the United Arab Emirates, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in 2017 within Jean Nouvel’s visionary building on Saadiyat Island. Bridging two nations, the pioneering project facilitates cultural exchange between, embodying the UAE’s goal of cultural openness with the help of France’s museum expertise. The world-class collection of international art foregrounds stories of human creativity and transcends time and place, with artworks and archaeological objects spanning the entirety of human history, arranged chronologically. Highlights include a Bronze Age terracotta statue from Cyprus, a page of the blue Qur’an from North Africa, as well as paintings by Giovanni Bellini, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Piet Mondrian. As part of the partnership, the Louvre Abu Dhabi receives loans from 13 of France’s most renowned cultural institutions, with 100 masterpieces shared from the Louvre every year. Separate buildings host four annual temporary exhibitions, as well as a children’s museum, sheltered under the museum’s iconic geometric dome.
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