We’ve come across this outstanding announcement just a couple of days ago: The wonderful Louvre Abu Dhabi art gallery will reportedly be built by a consortium led by Arabtec Holding, a brand from Dubai. The total cost of the project is said to reach a mind-boggling $654 million.
The brand, Abu Dhabi Tourism Development and Investment Company, has also announced they aim to open the museum in 2015, after around 2 years of research and development. The statement also says that the “competitive tendering process” has ended quite interestingly – the 2.4 billion dirhams contract was awarded to a joint venture between Oger Abu Dhabi LLC and a Spanish company called Constructora San Jose SA, both under the tutelage of Arabtec.
Furthermore, the local administration of Abu Dhabi has reportedly paid approximately $1.3 billion to use the Louvre name for 30 years, as well as to tap the fabled museum from Paris for expertise and artworks along the time.
The ideas behind this project have inevitably raised suspicion and debates among the French art world – critics, some of them pretty famous, keep saying the museum is selling its soul by doing this. The design of the Louvre Abu Dhabi was realised by Jean Nouvel, an acclaimed architect from France.
