Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Frenchise operation

Abu Dhabi has paid France $520m for conceding the Louvre name for their 'universal' art museum due to open in 2010.

They have also thrown in a further $747m for art loans, special exhibitions and management advice, $32.5m for refurbishing a bit of the original in Paris, and have agreed to buy 40 Airbus aircraft of the kind that nobody else seems to want. (This is all in addition to the $10.4 billion worth of French armaments purchased over the past decade.)

A couple of years after this flying saucer touches down, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will also open on Saadiyat Island, which sits opposite the main part of the city.

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