In March, the Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan and the French Minister of Culture signed an agreement according to which the Louvre will open a franchise in Abu Dhabi in 2012, to be hosted by the Classical Museum designed by Jean Nouvel. France will lend many art works and will stage four temporary exhibits in the course of a decade. Abu Dhabi will pay France €1 billion for the Louvre deal. This will enable the Ministry of Culture to fund a new art restoration center and the renovation works in a wing of the Fontainebleau castle. On its part, Abu Dhabi, by securing the Louvre franchise, gives a major boost to the tourism and real estate complex of Saadiyat Island ($27 million invested). Abu Dhabi has also ordered forty Airbus 380 planes and $10 billion in armaments to strengthen economic and geopolitical ties with France.
In France, 4,700 intellectuals signed a petition opposing the deal, but the government went ahead untroubled by protests. Jack Lang in person sided with the overseas expansion of the Louvre. The organizational choice made by the Louvre is a sign of its willingness to position itself as a crucial player in international art and culture. It also means that managerial decision-making is taking over from the old bureaucratic approach to run a complex institution such as the Louvre. Italians should well try to imitate the novel approach of their French counterparts in taking care of their great cultural heritage, whose valorization is today severely limited in scope by rigid regulations, conflicts of competence, and the resistance of entrenched bureaucrats.
Today’s global economy is characterized by quantitative and qualitative transformations in the demand for culture. The greatest cultural institutions of the world are relentlessly expanding either by acquisition, franchising or expansion: consider the cases of Guggenheim, Hermitage, and now Louvre. This drive in turn motivated by the changing economic needs of nations and cities, which increasingly view culture as key factors of their economic growth.
by Stefano Baia Curioni,
Associate Professor of Economic History and
Director of the Bocconi Art, Science and Knowledge (ASK) research center