Buying Culture

Luring educational institutions proved more challenging. Abu Dhabi set its sights first on the Sorbonne. But Pitte, the university's president, initially had misgivings about opening the renowned institution's first branch outside France in a place like the U.A.E. "My first impression is they only wanted prestige," he says. "They want[ed] the Louvre, the Guggenheim and the Sorbonne like their ladies want handbags from Christian Dior." He faced intense opposition from the school's administrative council. "They complained that the Emirates are not democratic, the ladies have to wear the veil, there is only monarchy, they have no culture," he recalls. But the financial incentives proved irresistible to France's impoverished free-university system. "For the first time we could have normal financial resources," says Pitte. The Sorbonne's Saadiyat Island campus, established a year ago in temporary quarters, aims to introduce high-level liberal-arts education to the region. Almost all instruction is in French, and the degrees offered are identical to those issued in France.

With an endowment of $18 billion, Yale University, which the U.A.E. approached next, does not face anything like the Sorbonne's financial constraints. Yet according to vice president Linda Lorimer, the university was attracted to the "world-class cluster of cultural institutions" that Abu Dhabi was assembling. The new location offered another advantage: Yale, which currently has only four students from the gulf, thought having a presence there "might draw more people to New Haven," says Lorimer. Though the details have yet to be worked out, Yale is thinking about offering liberal-arts classes and intensive beginner courses that will qualify Arab graduates to apply to U.S. schools.

But just as momentum for the complex was starting to build, a firestorm erupted. The fiercest attacks came from France. Françoise Cachin, honorary director of the French Museum Association; Jean Clair, former director of the Picasso Museum, and the art historian Roland Recht published an op-ed in Le Monde titled "Museums Are Not For Sale," declaring that "artworks belonging to our heritage are not consumer goods" to be sold to outsiders. It asked, "Isn't [the Louvre deal] selling one's soul?" The article quickly turned into a petition, which has collected almost 4,500 signatures from prominent figures, urging the government to "stop [using] French museums ... for political or financial ends."

The Louvre's own curators joined the fray. Catherine Goguel, the emeritus director of research in the prints and drawings department, condemned the "mercenary nature" of the project. "It is obvious that [the deal] is about the petrodollars and the military relations," she told The Art Newspaper. Other curators raised pragmatic objections; Islamic-art curator Bernus-Taylor worried that the inexperienced Emiratis would not take proper care of the museum's fragile works. And such an extensive lending commitment was certain to deplete the Louvre's resources. "Some of these [pieces] will be in Abu Dhabi for a long time, and they'll simply be unavailable for our French visitors and tourists," says Cachin. She also draws an ominous parallel to the Guggenheim in Las Vegas. "Look what happened [there]—nobody went," she says. "The same thing will happen at Saadiyat Island—people will come to play golf and lie on the beach, not for the art."

Still other critics have blasted the Abu Dhabi deals on moral grounds. They worried that Western institutions would have to compromise their principles to accommodate their new conservative hosts, particularly regarding artwork featuring nudes or religious images. "Thank goodness Monet painted waterlilies [and not nudes]," said a recent editorial in France's Libération. D'Haussonville insists that the Louvre will not be restricted from showing any art: "[Abu Dhabi's government] just asked that we be tactful and sensitive to their population." The French government has also set up an advisory committee to ensure that the new branch abides by the same standards as Paris. Still, the U.A.E. will retain the final say. "At the end of the day, it is their country, and their museum, so they can refuse any pieces," d'Haussonville admits.

Academic experts balked at the U.A.E.'s policy forbidding Israelis to enter the country. The University of Connecticut earlier this year dropped plans to open a campus on Saadiyat because the Israel boycott violates the school's anti-discrimination policies. Yale is also looking closely at the visa challenges and discrimination questions before finalizing all its arrangements, says Lorimer.