(7 Nov 2017) LEADIN:
After a decade long wait, Louvre Abu Dhabi is preparing to unveil itself to world.
620 pieces from masters including Leonardo da Vinci, Monet and Picasso will be on display to visitors of the modernist museum which opens its doors on Saturday (11 November).
STORYLINE:
Stepping into the Louvre Abu Dhabi, individual beams of light pass through the intricate roof to strike the surface and cast dancing reflections across the white walls.
Looking back and toward the future, encompassing both East and West, is a theme that extends throughout the new museum.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi opens to the public on Saturday (11th November 2017) after a decade of delays and questions over labourers' rights.
The modernist museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, sits under a honeycombed dome of eight layers of Arab-style geometric shapes.
It draws the lapping waters of the Persian Gulf into its outer corridors. At night, light inside pours out against the city's skyline.
"This metaphor of the sky cosmic, cosmographic, with a random system like the stars itself. I imagine that with light through, and I imagine that with not a lot of lighting, just a little bit to create a kind of rain of light," says Nouvel.
That rain has been a long time coming in the United Arab Emirates. Authorities first announced the Louvre Abu Dhabi project in 2007 as Dubai feverishly built the world tallest building and other wonders.
Today, much of Saadiyat Island, envisioned as a cultural district anchored by the museum, is still empty. A planned Middle East outpost of the Guggenheim remains unbuilt, with just a poured foundation on the salt flood plain.
Part of the reason is the drop in global energy prices from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to around $30 in early 2016. Officials in Abu Dhabi have not disclosed how much it cost to build the museum.
What is known is that Abu Dhabi agreed to pay France $525 million for the use of the "Louvre" name for the next 30 years, plus another $750 million to hire French managers to oversee the 300 loaned works of art.
A centre at Paris' Louvre now bears the name of the late UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, which was also part of the deal.
During construction, the project faced intense criticism over conditions faced by labourers, who faced low pay, long hours and hot conditions. A worker was killed in an accident in 2015 while another died of "natural causes" in 2016, according to Abu Dhabi authorities.
Hundreds working on projects on the island, including the Louvre, also were deported or lost their work visas for launching strikes over their conditions, according to a 2015 Human Rights Watch report. Labour strikes are illegal in the UAE.
Jean-Luc Martinez, the president-director of the Louvre in Paris, contends the museum spoke "very frankly" about labourer conditions. He describes the museum as a bridge between Asia, Africa and Europe.
"It's not a European museum, and it's not the European point of view, it's placed to see the world from Abu Dhabi. Of course here we are a bridge between Asia, Africa, and Europe so this meeting point here, this bridge it's very important to understand the world of today," he says.
The museum began acquiring works in 2009 and currently has more than 620 pieces and artefacts. Only 235 from its own collection however will be displayed at the time of the opening. The rest of the pieces are on loan, with 300 artworks coming from 13 leading French museums.
Perhaps the most highly anticipated piece on loan is a Leonardo da Vinci painting.
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