PARIS - A billionaire Saudi prince has donated $20 million to the Louvre Museum to help fund a new Islamic art wing — a freeform, glassy structure that will bring a modern touch to a neoclassical courtyard. The addition, funded by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, will be built into the southern wing of the sprawling Paris museum. Its wavy roof, made of glass disks, will look like a rippling surface of water.
At 43,000 square feet, the wing will quadruple the existing space for the Islamic art collection, Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said Tuesday, in outlining plans for the project, which is slated for completion in 2009. "This project ought to remind the French people and the world of Islamic civilizations' essential contribution to our culture."
Photo: This computer generated image made available by the Louvre Museum, shows the project of a new Islamic art wing, a freeform, glassy structure that will bring a modern touch to the neoclassical courtyard of the Louvre museum in Paris.
