“The main exhibit is the futuristic building itself” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Dmitry Butkevich talks, in particular, about his trip to the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Anticipating the series of year-end programs that our beloved radio management strictly ordered us to do, I’ll tell you first about what I especially remember. From cultural events, of course, but also personal ones. I’ll start with this.

I became the owner of a token with the face of a goddess – “Venus and Cupid on dolphins.” This is part of a fresco from Raphael’s school, which is being restored by the Hermitage as part of their joint program with the companies Interros and Atomize. Hybrid digital products, by the way, can be exhibited at exhibitions and at auctions (I haven’t gotten to that point yet). For example, the world’s first non-fungible token, Quantum, created in 2014, sold at Sotheby’s during the peak year for NFTs in 2021 for almost $1.5 million.

I also finally visited the Louvre. Not the one you immediately thought of. And in the museum of the same name, located in Abu Dhabi. Undoubtedly, its main exhibit is the futuristic building itself, which is a huge openwork dome created from 8 thousand metal stars, and there are channels around and seemingly inside. The building was built six years ago according to the design of my good friend, the architect Jean Nouvel, in his own style. The closest thing to him is hi-tech, but with a unique play of light, shadow and transparency, for which other projects of the famous French architect are famous.

For the name and honor of being a branch of the Louvre for 30 years, the emirate had to pay France $525 million. And for the rental of masterpieces, including works by Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, about another $750 million. With the transfer of some paintings, however , the matter was not entirely clean. I talked about this. But that’s another story. In general, there is now continuous construction going on around there, and soon a real museum cluster will appear almost in the desert. The Solomon Guggenheim Museum and the Sheikh Zayed National History Museum are being built nearby.

So, these were perhaps my main personal cultural impressions of the year. I will tell you more about public exhibition, theater and auction results in upcoming programs.