Just a name (rented!) – for half a billion dollars!

If you’re not in the know, the words Louvre and Abu Dhabi might seem incongruent. But it turns out there’s an art museum in the latter that’s renting just the name Louvre off the famous Paris museum for 40 years (2007–2047) for US$500,000! What?! Just goes to show: never underestimate the value of a brand name!

Sure, I was curious – and in town. So of course – we just had to get ourselves over to the Louvre Abu Dhabi!…

Right at the entrance: a gigantic carved-stone head from the Olmec civilization. I’d long dreamed of seeing this in the flesh; finally, here it was in front of me:

What’s most strange – and still unsolved – is how and why this Mesoamerican people, two–three thousand years ago, carved these round heads with features that are often distinctly African. How did the ancient Olmecs know what Africans even looked like when Africa is some 8000km away across the Atlantic?!

We continue past the big stone head on a stroll through all 12 exhibition halls. There’s a lot of different stuff gathered here. Ancient Egypt, for example (it’d been a while:) ->

Artifacts from different cultures, but from around the same era:

To be honest, overall, the museum doesn’t make a particularly strong impression. However, it’s only the beginning. The original Louvre, Hermitage, and so on also started out small once. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day Abu Dhabi’s Louvre (or whatever it will be called by then) also reaches the level of the world’s top museums.

But for now it’s like this:

Roman remakes in the style of Ancient Greek classics:

Loved the crocodile:

Oh! The modern art hall ->

I was reminded here of when Victor Pelevin answered his own question about modern art: “What’s the difference between a rusty piece of scrap from a dump and a piece of contemporary art?”…

…”The only difference is one is sold”. Then it becomes an art-object investment. Even just a photo of a dirty potato can become one. Don’t believe it?!

But I digress. Back to the modern art halls…

Ooh – I liked this one. “The Submissive Reader”. Surely it’s a Magritte? Yes, my gut feeling wasn’t wrong!

And what’s that catching my eye in the corner?…

A Chagall!

Having passed through all the halls, we enter a large open area with refreshments being sold…

…Where you can view of the museum’s roof – an impressive piece of art itself! ->

It consists of eight layers of metallic mesh constructions. It doesn’t provide any protection from the rain (not that there’s much here anyway), but it does make for a gorgeous, semi-transparent sunshade!

It’s just beautiful:

And that was about it. An expensive but overall not especially remarkable museum display. I hope in the future it’ll grow with more historical artifacts and so on.

I thought we were done, but then I walked up to a random door, just by chance, and it opened, and there was more!…

It was a temporary exhibition of artifacts from African cultures and peoples – and it was just awesome!

Honestly, this is the best place in the whole museum. You could easily spend hours in these halls.

Loads and loads of stuff in here – all from sub-Saharan countries and territories.

My mind was truly blown! Never have I seen such a huge and utterly authentic variety of items anywhere, ever!…

What a porcupine!

Seats for VIPs:

What’s this?

Just a “Jar with four legs”. But the design is killer!

And so on:

Not just a chair:

It’s made out of shell casings and bombs:

Take a closer look:

Like I say: truly awesome.

What I couldn’t get over was we nearly missed this! Oh – and, I’m afraid you already have. The exhibit moved on on June 8.

And that was that. The Louvre Abu Dhabi: done!

The best hi-res photos from the UAE are here.