Louvre has accepted Abu Dhabi payments of over €1bn The Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA) paid the Louvre museum in Paris, France €25m a leaked letter revealed. The letter, published in left-wing French newspaper Liberation, shows correspondence between the head of the TCA and the ex-Louvre Director, Henri Loyrette. The payment was initially made in 2007 by Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan with the intention of hiring space in the museum; in addition the gulf state has paid over €1bn for the Louvre Abu Dhabi project, which will see a museum being established in the Gulf state.
The letter complained that the €25m project is yet to come to fruition, and also that too much money has been spent by the museum (€800,000 annually on travel) on sourcing art for the Abu Dhabi museum project. The complaint also highlighted that the museum has not made enough efforts to sufficiently engage with its Gulf counterpart.
The French Ministry of Culture has distanced itself from the letter saying: “We are not aware of the everyday relations between Abu Dhabi and the museum, of which we have no influence,” reports the Art Newspaper.