Louvre Abu Dhabi: In The Art World's Most Exciting New Opening

Picasso, Da Vinci, and other workers used boasts to retrieve floating rubbish. Cynthia Drescher weighs up the new Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Cynthia Drescher told a friend, "This must be what it is like to walk around inside the Death Star," while strolling around the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a landmark for art and architecture opened to the public on November 11. Known as a museum city by architect Jean Nouvel, it is a collection of more than 50 buildings, including 23 galleries that hold 600 works of art. Its stark, white walls are bordered by lagoons, with most structures housed beneath a vast domed roof.

A deal between Abu Dhabi and France will see the Louvre name leased for 30 years. Loans of high-profile artworks from France's significant museums will fill many walls as the new sibling fills its collection. The works in display for its opening come from Paris greats and the Louvre: the Musee d Orsay Centre Pompidou Chateau de Versailles Musee Rodin, Musee Guimet, and Musee du quai Branly. Works have also been sourced from galleries outside France, such as the National Museum of Oman.

The most photographed artwork appears to be Jacques Louis Davids's large painting of Napolean crossing the Alps on loan from Versailles. It is a strange top pick that "works that qualify as classics to a Western viewer feel surreal at the multiculturalist Louvre Abu Dhabi".

If Napolean is not your thing, Leonardo da Vinci's La Belle Ferroniere is on loan from the Louvre Paris. This female portrait is almost as enigmatic as its more famous cousin, the Mona Lisa, only with a fraction of the crowds pursuing it. Some other works include Monet's La Gare Saint Lazare, Picasso's Portrait of a Lady, a Van Gogh self-portrait, and works by Magritte, Pollock, Warhol and Cy Twombly. Ai Weiwei's illuminated crystal tower structure forms the enclosed galleries' grand finale, leading visitors to an outdoor piazza beneath the museum's dome. Even the roof called Rain of Light by Nouvel is a work of art, with sunlight piercing its eight layers and 400,000 aluminium and stainless steel companies projecting geometric shapes on the floor below.

Unline the Paris Louvre, which is daunting even for a day-long visit. The new branch is doable in only a few hours, and travellers on an Abu Dhabi stopover can easily fit it between flights. Be aware that it still appears to be in the soft opening period, with viewing terraces unfinished, some signs marked off with masking tape as they wait for paint, and the gift shop so far lacking any Louvre-branded merchandise.

Finding its way, in general, is an issue that needs to be fixed or clarified. Signage and paths leading to locked globe doors are required. The situation is especially dire for artworks in the outdoor spaces such as the granite and slate fountain from 18th century Damascus, and few goes away from Jenny Holzer's specially commissioned work, which sees an ancient Sumerian script chiselled across an entire stone wall. These see few visitors as no explicit routes to visit them are marked on the paper maps or the walls.

Therefore, she prepared for a strict routing system as she tried to double back into the galleries. Having been to the cafe, she was forced out to rescan her ticket at the main entry. Regarding the cafe, it consists of a terrace to die for views, but the lack of rubbish bins combined with the breeze means that the remains of meals are blown into the museum's lagoons, and workers retrieve them with fishing nets in smaller inflatable boats.

The Louvre is on Saadiyat island, and it is a 20-minute taxi ride from Abu Dhabi's Corniche beachfront or a 30-minute taxi ride from the airport. Authorities have marked the area as a cultural district with plans for a Guggenheim Museum curated by Frank Gehry and a national museum of the UAE in partnership with the British Museum to be made by Fister Plus Partners. All of these have yet to start construction, and seeing how the Louvre was traditionally scheduled for a 2012 opening, do not bet on museums hopping on Saadiyat for maybe another decade.

So is it worth a visit? Yes, the sooner, the better. As word spreads of the treasures on show inside and the snaps taken of its photogenic angels rack up Instagram likes, crowds will grow fast. It is a masterpiece of contemporary architecture stocked with some of the most essential and renowned artworks on Earth, and the round-the-block day-ruining queues of the Paris Louvre are still determining it.

Travel essentials

Getting there

Etihad flies to Abu Dhabi from Heathrow for a 369-pound return.

Staying there

Saadiyat Island houses two beachfront, five-star resorts. The Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi offers double rooms starting at 220 pounds, and the St Regis Saadiyat Island offers double rooms starting at 240 pounds.

More Information

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is closed on Mondays and open from 10 am to 8 pm every day except Thursday and Friday, when it closes at 10 pm. Entrance is 60 AED, and buying advance tickets online is highly recommended.

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