The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France signed an agreement here on Tuesday to build Louvre Abu Dhabi museum in a cultural district of the UAE capital.

The agreement, the first of its kind for the Louvre, was signed by Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, and visiting French Minister for Culture and Communications Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.

The 24,000-square-meter Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, is expected to open in 2012 to exhibit major artifacts and works in archaeology, the fine arts and decorative arts from all historic periods.

There will be 6,000 square meters of galleries dedicated to permanent displays and 2,000 square meters for temporary exhibitions in the museum.

"We have decided to create together a museum destined to foster cultural dialogue between East and West by exhibiting works of major importance from all the domains of the history of art, spanning all historic periods, including the contemporary, and all geographic regions," Vabres said.

"The Louvre Abu Dhabi will make use of the most innovative techniques in the field of museography, fulfilling, at all times, the quality criteria and scientific and museographic aims of the Louvre," he added.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is one of several iconic museums to be built in the Saadiyat Cultural District, an island 500 meters away from Abu Dhabi.

"The Louvre Abu Dhabi will give the Cultural District destination even greater significance. It signals a new era of social awareness and will deliver to the nation and the region economic and human impact which will be profound and far-reaching," Sheikh Sultan said.

Saadiyat Island will play an integral role in realizing Abu Dhabi's ambition to be globally recognized as a world-class cultural destination, he added.

Source: Xinhua