[Kzin]

Price of a Good Name? For Louvre: $520 Million
By ALAN RIDING

PARIS, March 6 — What’s the price of a good name?

How about a cool $520 million?

That is the amount that Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, agreed today to pay to attach the Louvre’s name to a new museum that it hopes to open in 2012. And there is more: in exchange for art loans, special exhibitions and management advice, Abu Dhabi will pay France a further $747 million.

Controversy over the so-called Louvre Abu Dhabi has been swirling in France for the past three months, with critics charging that the French government is “selling” its museums. But only now have the full details of the $1.267 billion package been disclosed.

For Abu Dhabi, the deal marks an important step in its plan to build a $27 billion tourist and cultural development on Saadiyat Island, opposite the city. The project’s cultural components include a Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a maritime museum and a performing arts center as well as the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

For France, the agreement signals a new willingness to exploit this country’s culture for both political and economic ends. In this case, it also represents something of a payback: the United Arab Emirates has ordered 40 Airbus 380 aircraft and has bought some $10.4 billion worth of armaments from France over the past decade.

The agreement was signed today in Abu Dhabi by France’s culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and the president of Abu Dhabi’s tourism authority, Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon al-Nahayan. Henri Loyrette, the president of the Louvre, was among the many senior French museum officials in attendance.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi, which has been designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel as a 260,000 square-foot complex covered by a flying saucer-like roof, is expected to cost around $108 million to build. Planned as a universal museum, it will include art from all eras and regions, including Islamic art.

The project will be overseen by a new International Agency for French Museums that is to include the Musée d’Orsay, the Georges Pompidou Center, the Musée Guimet, the Château de Versailles, the Musée Rodin, the Musée du Quai Branly and the Louvre among its members. This new agency is also expected to look for new international partners in the coming years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/wo...nd-louvre.html

[Admiral Hackbar]

So, the building will cost one fifth as much to build as to name. Nice.