In its boldest development in a generation, the Louvre Museum has opened a
new wing dedicated to Islamic art. The project cost nearly $130 million to
complete and was opened by the French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday.
Although years in the working, the magnificent celebration of 13 centuries of
Islamic art by the world’s premier museum could not have opened in a better
time, celebration and not the clash of civilizations amid a tense time between
the West and the Islamic World.
Photo credit: French President Francois Hollande, second right, and
his companion Valerie Trierweiler, center, look at the Saint Louis baptistery,
work of Master Muhammad Ibn al-Zain at the new Department of Islamic Arts
galleries at the Louvre museum. Paris, Tuesday Sept. 18, 2012. (AP
Photo/Gonzalo Fuentes)
