The Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017 and is situated on Saadiyat Island, a neighborhood in Abu Dhabi that will eventually  house a complex of major cultural institutions, including a new Guggenheim museum.  The building, designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, is simply wonderful.  A structure of white cubes dazzles the eyes, reflecting (as it inevitably does) the bright Gulf sunshine, and is crowned by an intricate webbed roof that makes you think of palm fronds and Arabic calligraphy.  Inside it’s all cool, white space; a serene setting for a relatively small collection of art treasures from around the world.

The arrangement of the exhibits is loosely chronological, beginning with galleries dedicated to classical antiquity and ending with abstraction and modernism.  It’s easy enough to be snobbish about the “ready made” collection of masterpieces brought together in this extraordinary showcase.  A Leonardo here, a Delacroix there. An exquisite Torah scroll set next to a 14th century bible, and so on.  It feels like the collection of a fabulously wealthy benefactor determined to show off their buying power and the breadth (if not the depth) of their interests.  Museums can’t be hatched, fully formed.  They take decades, sometimes even centuries, to mature and to grow into their surroundings and the riches they display.  But they have to start somewhere.  It will be interesting to see how Louvre Abu Dhabi evolves and finds its natural shape. For now, we have been given a glittering jewel case filled with nothing but exquisite wonders.