Details of $924-Million Louvre-Abu Dhabi Agreement; Signing Due Tuesday

Looks like a done deal. Le Monde reports today:

Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres will go to Abu Dhabi Mar. 6...to sign...an intergovernmental accord permitting the creation of a "universal" museum that will bear the name Louvre-Abu Dhabi.

Here are some of the details about the funds to be provided by Abu Dhabi, as reported by Emmanuel de Roux and Jacques Follorou:

---Total amount that France will receive from Abu Dhabi: about $924 million
---Construction cost of the Jean Nouvel-designed museum: $109.56 million
---Fee for loans of objects from French national and regional museums (including the Louvre): $264 million
---Fees for 40 temporary exhibitions over 10 years: $198 million
---Support for a new French agency to oversee the project: $92.4 million
---Amount to be spent, over 10 years, to acquire art for the new museum's collection: $528 million

What has not yet been revealed is the amount that Abu Dhabi will pay for the right to use the Louvre's name for a period of 10 to 20 years. Other details were revealed in January, including the intention to phase out, over time, the French museums' close involvement and, eventually, to remove "Louvre" from its name.

The museum is scheduled to open at the end of 2012.

The use of collections as cash cows has been the subject of much controversy in the French artworld. An online petition against such use now bears more than 4,600 signatures.

"We have lost a battle, but the fight continues," wrote the petition's organizer, Didier Rykner, in an editorial today on the French website, La Tribune de l'Art.

A press conference will be held in Abu Dhabi after Tuesday's signing, to announce the details of the agreement.