Louvre Abu Dhabi museum opening date announced

The ‘Museum on the Sea’ will open to the public on November 11 this year in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Earlier today, His Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, delivered a speech at an official opening date ceremony of the ambitious cultural institution at Manarat Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi.

"The UAE boosts its global cultural presence with the opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi in November 11. It serves as a cradle for art & culture." pic.twitter.com/oaKjxIeGDV

— محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) September 6, 2017

The museum has been designed by Jean Nouvel, a French architect who has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, a top recognition in the field of architecture. Inspired by the medina (the old walled part of a town) and low-lying Arab settlements, Nouvel applied a contextual approach to the site, designing the Louvre Abu Dhabi as a ‘museum city’ in the sea with its contrasting series of 55 white buildings.

In addition to art galleries, the facility includes a temporary exhibition space, a children’s museum, a 200-seater-auditorium, a restaurant, a café, and retail space. Once open, the museum’s 600-piece permanent collection, as well as important loaned artworks from prestigious French institutions, will form an art historical narrative taking the visitor from ancient times to the contemporary.

About 300 artworks from 13 key French institutions will be on display in the opening year alone, including paintings by Leonardo da Vinci’s and Edouard Manet. The Louvre Abu Dhabi was originally set to open in 2012, but that date was pushed back to late 2014, and then late 2016.

It will be the first of three museums on Saadiyat Island, and will be followed by the openings of the Zayed National Museum and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.