The story
Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in 2017 on Saadiyat Island as the first museum to license the Louvre name, under a 30-year agreement in which France lends works and expertise in return for a very large fee. The architect Jean Nouvel gave it a vast shallow dome about 180 metres across, a lattice of nearly 8,000 metal stars layered so that sunlight filters through in shifting points the designers call a rain of light.
Rather than sorting art by nation, the galleries run chronologically and set civilisations side by side: an ancient figure from one culture placed next to a work made elsewhere at the same moment, following how ideas travelled. On the walls hang loans and acquisitions ranging from Leonardo and Bellini to Van Gogh and Mondrian.
The building sits low against the water, and the sea reaches in beneath the dome, between the white blocks that hold the galleries.
