The Louvre inaugurates Islamic Arts building

Twenty years after the opening of the Pyramid at Paris' Louvre museum, French President Francois Hollande will inaugurate a second building in the museum dedicated to Islamic art, Tuesday.

**The Louvre Museum was the most visited art venue in 2011 [Credit: ANSAMed]**

Commissioned in 2002 by former President Jacques Chirac and designed by architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti, the building, which cost 98.5 million euro and covers an area of 2,500 meters square, will host more than 3,000 objects of Islamic civilization.

Among the objects on show, all of which come from Louvre collections and the Museum of Decorative Art, are carpets, ceramics and jewelry - displayed in chronological order from the seventh through to the nineteenth century, and a 12 metre tall reconstructed Ottoman wall.

Sitting in the Louvre's Visconti Courtyard - the only one available for the project, the building is on two levels, one of which is underground.

Visitors examine a vase entitled "Paon-Aquamanile" from Spain as they listen a guide on September 17, 2012 in Paris, during a press visit of the new Department of Islamic Arts at the Louvre, the largest of its kind in Europe, with 3,000 artefacts on display, gathered from Spain to India and dating back to the seventh century AD. Intended to celebrate "The Radiant Face of a Great Civilization" the 100-million-euro project - largely financed by donors from across the Islamic world - will be inaugurated by French President ahead of its official opening on September 18 [Credit: AFP/Kenzo Tribouillard]

"It is a modern building, developed in the underground space, which fits exactly with the tour of the Louvre", Bellini tells ANSA. Bellini compares the building to a 'floating device', or a jewel set in the 18th Century courtyard of the Louvre. Equally, "the corrugated, translucent structure" - covered by a grid of gold and silver coloured metal, "could resemble a cloud, a sail blowing in the wind, or the wing of a dragonfly".

"It seems suspended in the air thanks to a perimetre of invisible windows which reveal the blue sky and the rest of the Louvre. In addition the floor has many openings which give a sense of continuity to the two exhibition floors", explains Bellini.

The idea of creating a department devoted to Islamic Art was an 'intelligent" one, says Bellini, particularly in times of international tension between religion and civility.

"It is a gesture of understanding, exchange, acceptance and integration", he said. Henry Loirette, president of the Louvre describes the new wing as "a decisive step in the architectural history of the building and the museum" which represents "the will to go forward. " The inauguration is to include a series of events, lectures and screenings.

Source: ANSAMed [September 17, 2012]