Abu Dhabi: A number of tourists are specifically travelling to the UAE to visit the Louvre museum which opened to the public last month, the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism said on Monday.
“In the first six weeks of the museum, we have seen abundance of travellers fly specifically to the UAE just to visit this museum and that has created a domino effect on all other sites — whether malls or hotels or other sites. It created a closer connectivity as a tourist between Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” said Mohammad Al Mubarak speaking at the Bloomberg Invest Abu Dhabi conference.
Last week, the Department of Culture and Tourism announced that it had acquired Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece ‘Salvator Mundi’ (Saviour of the World) and would display it in the museum. The painting cost $450 million (Dh1.65 billion).
Al Mubarak clarified that they bought the painting with a strategy in mind and added that it was not gifted to them by Saudi Arabia.
“We have been eyeing this piece for quite some time. It is very important portrait that we broadcast our essence of acceptance and our essence of tolerance. It [will] be sitting side by side with some of the greatest art pieces from all over the world.”
He further added, “We worked very closely with a broker on this piece and bid on it and it was acquired. Thank God, with the price we felt it was right for.”
Dated back to 1500, Salvator Mundi is an oil-on-panel painting depicting a half-length figure of Christ as Saviour of the World, facing the viewer, and dressed in flowing robes of lapis and crimson. There were reports in the media that Saudi Arabia bought the painting and gifted it to Abu Dhabi.
