Louvre Abu Dhabi

Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017 on Saadiyat Island as the result of an agreement between the United Arab Emirates and France, which lends the Louvre name, expertise and works from French national museums for a period of decades. It is not a branch of the Paris museum but a new institution with its own growing collection, and its idea is different from any older museum: instead of separating art by country or department, it hangs objects from different civilisations side by side, chapter by chapter, from the first villages to the present day, so that a Chinese bronze, an Egyptian statue and a Greek vase of the same period share a room.

The building by Jean Nouvel is the first exhibit. A cluster of white gallery boxes, like a small town, sits on the water beneath a flat dome one hundred and eighty metres across, made of eight layers of perforated metal. Sunlight passing through them falls as thousands of moving spots, the effect Nouvel called the rain of light. The sea enters the complex through channels and pools, and the outdoor plaza under the dome is open to the sky at its edges.

The permanent galleries follow twelve chapters in a single loop, so the route is easy: follow the sequence, then finish under the dome. Loans from French museums rotate every year or so, so specific famous paintings come and go, while the museum's own acquisitions, including several described here, stay. Two to three hours covers the galleries and the plaza; sunset under the dome is worth timing your visit for.