The Louvre Abu Dhabi has purchased an iconic portrait of George Washington, executed by portrait artist Gilbert Stuart from Los Angeles’s Armand Hammer Foundation.  The work will hang in a gallery featuring work exploring the notion of prominent individuality, alongside the Jacques-Louis David ’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps.   (more…)

The Louvre’s new expansion in Abu Dhabi will be announcing 300 loans from its Paris counterpart and twelve other French museum partners by the end of the year, The Art Newspaper reports.  The works on loan will rotate over the course of the next ten years, joining up with about 500 new acquisitions that will make up the new museum’s permanent collection.   (more…)

A leaked letter from Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, to the then director of the Louvre, Henri Loyrette has revealed frustrations between the Middle Eastern state and the French museum, which is currently planning for its new museum in the Gulf state.  Written last year, the letter takes the Louvre to task for failing to spend a â‚¬25 Million gift from the country, and criticizes the Louvre for not minimizing the role of the Emeratis in the acquisition of works for the new museum.   (more…)

French President François Hollande has announced Jean-Luc Martinez as the new director-president of the Louvre.  Martinez, who previously served as head of the Greco-Roman antiquities department, will take over in the wake of a 7.5% cutback in the national cultural budget, and will also be responsible for finalizing loans for the construction of the Louvre’s new location in Abu Dhabi. (more…)

A range of new real estate projects worldwide are embracing the intersections of luxury living and artistic communities, using local artistic cultures to bolster the property offerings of new developments.  Tying creative culture closely with high-value properties, developers and real estate agents are using the creative spirit of their property locations to lure interested buyers. “(These developments) encourage buyers to truly invest in an area and not buy and sell simply to make money.”  Said Argentinian developer Alan Faena.
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‪ Abu Dhabi’s Louvre, $27 billion Zayed National Museum, and Guggenheim openings delayed to 2015, 2016, and 2017 respectively from their 2013-2014 previous deadlines, though substantial work has been completed. [AO Newslink]

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