For more than ten years in the making, the first museum named “The Louvre Abu Dhabi” is finally opened to the public on Saturday. It has attracted a large crowd of almost hundreds of Emiratis along with Asian, European and Arab expatriates.

A VIP inauguration was also held and French President Emmanuel Macron was among the first visitors to visit the museum. In addition the exciting opening, the Malian Troupe Awa de Sangha put up a cultural and dance performance on Nov 11.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi project is the first museum of its kind in the Arab world and this museum is meant to be “universal with a strong focus on shared human stories across civilisations and cultures.”

Inside the expansive museum houses famous works from the Paris institution along with pieces from Middle Eastern civilisations. All of its permanent collection consists of some hundreds of pieces that were acquired from the earliest Mesopotamian civilisations to the present day.

The displays are presented in a modern, light-filled structure in harmony with its desert-island setting. Located on the low-lying Saadiyat Island, the area where the museum sits on is a developing tourism and culture hub, which is about 500 m off the coast of the United Arab Emirates’ capital.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi will spend one billion euros ($1.16 billion) under a 30-year agreement with France where the latter will provide expertise, loans works of art and organises temporary exhibitions. However, the Paris museum will lend works to its Abu Dhabi partner on a voluntary basis, for a maximum of two years in the next ten years.

“The Louvre in France takes a 400-million-euro share of that sum for the use of its name up to 2037.”