AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE ARABBEWS
Wednesday 19 September 2012
PARIS: Paris’s famed Louvre museum opened a new wing of Islamic art in a bid to improve knowledge of a religion often viewed with suspicion in the West. French President Francois Hollande opened the wing officially yesterday, with the public expected to get the first glimpse on Saturday.
Costing nearly 100 million euros ($ 131 million), it is funded by the French government and supported by handsome endowments from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, Oman and Azerbaijan.
About 3,000 precious works from the seventh to the 19th centuries are spread across 3,000 square meters (33,000 square feet) over two levels. The exhibits will be rotated.
The project was a brainchild of French former president Jacques Chirac and dates back to 2001.
It groups 18,000 treasures from an area spanning from Europe to India and includes the oldest love missive in the Islamic world.
France is home to at least four million Muslims and leaders of the community say incidents of Islamophobia are on the rise against a background of confrontation with the authorities and rising suspicion of Muslims.
Many Muslims in France have been angered by legislation banning women from wearing full veils and this year’s elections were marked by debate over the use of halal methods of animal slaughter.
The tensions were highlighted by the one of the main movers behind the project, Sophie Makariou, the head of the department of Islamic arts at the Louvre, who said the aim is to show a “Islam with a capital I.” “That means the civilization as a whole, not with a small ‘i’ designating just the religious sphere,” she said.
“We must give back the word Islam its full glory… and not leave it to the jihadists to tarnish it,” she said.
Set in a courtyard commissioned in the 18th century, it is housed under a giant undulating gold-colored aluminum canopy pierced with tiny holes to let daylight filter through and change the mood and the ambience with the sun’s rays.
The collection brings together pieces from Spain, Egypt’s Mameluke “slave” dynasty, the Moghul empire in India, Persia and Central Asia.
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http://www.arabnews.com/louvre-opens-new-wing-restore-%E2%80%98full-glory-islam%E2%80%99
Categories: Arab World, Archeology, Art, Europe, France, India, Iran, Islam, Religion and Science, Research, Saudi Arabia
After seeing the churches, mosques and palaces in Turkey, Spain and St. Petersburgh in Russia, I thought that Paris will have nothing to offer me. Now I will visit the museum in January.
This new wing will increase the traffic from 5 million Muslims in France and also from among the 25 million in Europe and help in promoting mutual understanding and universal brotherhood, between Muslims and Christians.
This is the way Saudi Arabia should be spending her money rather than promoting fundamentalism.
Our collection about Muslim Heritage in IslamforWest.org.