Louvre Abu Dhabi has been held up as a pioneering platform for international cultural exchanges developing relations between people and nations, Noura Al Kaabi told the Paris Peace Forum on Tuesday.
The Minister for Culture and Knowledge Development was a keynote speaker on a panel to examine art's role in fostering dialogue.
Ms Al Kaabi said Louvre Abu Dhabi was part of official efforts to challenge established perspectives.
“We are trying to change perceptions so that art is seen as for everyone in Abu Dhabi,” she said.
“We have the Louvre museum and it is not just for a certain section of individuals who are capable of collecting art.”
Also on the panel was Franck Riester, the French Minister of Culture, who said he had been instructed by French President Emmanuel Macron to make the vast stock of French art accessible to the greatest number of people.
“We have to reach out to other people and that is what we did with Louvre Abu Dhabi," Mr Riester said.
"We are trying to share our heritage with other people in the world thanks to our partnership with the UAE.”
Ms Al Kaabi told the panel that the street leading to Louvre Abu Dhabi had been named to honour former French president Jacques Chirac.
Mr Riester said the recently deceased president had a deep historical understanding of the region’s importance.
“Jacques Chirac said there is no hierarchy between cultures, just as there is no hierarchy between people,” he said.
“The Arabian Peninsula has been at the crossroads for different cultures for millennia and has that role to play today.”
Mr Riester said he would establish a residency programme for French artists to go abroad, and for those from conflict areas.
Thomas Kaplan, a businessman who has sought to exhibit the Leiden Collection around the world, spoke of using art as a tool to offset tension.
Mr Kaplan said this was important at times when people were building walls or, in the case of ISIS and other extremist groups, destroying ancient heritage in places such as Iraq's Mosul and Syria's Palmyra.
He said the bravery of displaying all historic forms of art was an act of greatness and singled out the role of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, in founding Louvre Abu Dhabi.
“What Louvre Abu Dhabi represents is potentially the most important development of our times,” Mr Kaplan said.
He said the positive effects went beyond the UAE to Saudi Arabia and beyond. In particular, it countered the destructive forces of groups such as ISIS.
“It is the riposte to the savagery of Mosul, the riposte to Palmyra," Mr Kaplan said. "The bravery of this is to do it at a time when it’s easier to keep your head down.”
Ms Al Kaabi said the legacy of Pope Francis's visit to Abu Dhabi in February was to show the basic values of humanity were connected to religion, which should not be a tool of division.
She said the UAE was set to restore Al Nuri mosque in Mosul and the city's churches. Reversing the damage wrought by ISIS to the city's skyline was very important.
“Connectivity is so important,” Ms Al Kaabi said. “Any culture that crosses borders into towns and villages is enriching.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The Specs:
The Specs:
Engine: 2.9-litre, V6 twin-turbo
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Power: 444bhp
Torque: 600Nm
Price: AED 356,580 incl VAT
On sale: now.
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
On racial profiling at airports
Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
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8.55pm: The Palm Fountain - Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,200m
9.30pm: The Palm Tower - Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,600m
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMaly%20Tech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Mo%20Ibrahim%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%20International%20Financial%20Centre%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241.6%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2015%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPre-seed%2C%20planning%20first%20seed%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20GCC-based%20angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Race 3
Produced: Salman Khan Films and Tips Films
Director: Remo D’Souza
Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib Salem
Rating: 2.5 stars
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
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Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
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Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
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Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
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Photography Staff of Reuters
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Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
