Artworks unveiled for Saadiyat museum

ABU DHABI // New artwork, including one of the oldest known photographs of a veiled woman, will be part of the Louvre Abu Dhabi's permanent collection when the first of Saadiyat Island's landmark museums opens in 2015.

The new acquisitions will be formally announced as part of the "Louvre Abu Dhabi: Talking Art Series", a lecture and public events programme on October 3 at Manarat Al Saadiyat .

"The artworks have been carefully acquired and complement the universal narrative of the museum, representing world civilisations and important artistic periods across time," said Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority.

Among the new works is Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey's 1843 daguerreotype titled Ayoucha, the most ancient known photographic representation of a veiled woman.

Also on show will be Breton Boys Wrestling, an 1888 oil painting by Paul Gauguin and a standing "Bactrian princess" from the end of the third millennium BC.

The next exhibition of the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection will be held in April 2013 and will be entitled "Birth of a Museum".

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