Correction in para 1: French museums are to loan 300 artworks instead of France's Louvre is to loan 300 artworks.
MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - French museums are to loan 300 artworks to the Louvre in Abu Dhabi opening in December 2015, UAE’s The National newspaper said Sunday.
“These outstanding loans from our French partners represent the collaboration and exchange, symbolic of Louvre Abu Dhabi and its progress to date,” Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Nahyan, the chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority was reported as saying by the newspaper.
The artworks include a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet’s impressionist landscape of the Saint-Lazare Station and a rare salt cellar in ivory from the Benin Kingdom that will add on to the museum’s permanent collection.
“This will be the first time many of these works will travel to Abu Dhabi or even the Middle East, and are a rare opportunity to see important art from French museums in dialogue with the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s collection,” he added.
According to the newspaper, the aim of the transfer is for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the first universal one in the Arab world, to be immersed in a rich tradition of masterpieces from Europe reflecting the cultural landscape of the 18th and 19th centuries.
“Its very name affirms the unprecedented alliance between the world’s biggest museum, a permanent place of beauty and knowledge, and modern Arabia, whose exceptional dynamism is at the heart of the contemporary world,” Louvre’s France stated on its website.
In addition to the loaned art works there will also be knowledge transfer and training of UAE nationals in the field of museums, including internships in the French museums that comprise the Agence France-Museums, The National reported.
