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From Paris, With Love: Rodin's Thinker at Abu Dhabi Louvre

Associated Press

   ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - His head bent down, chin resting on
   one hand, a furrowed brow and pressed lips: The Thinker, possibly one
   of the most famous sculptures of all time, has found a new home at the
   Louvre Abu Dhabi.

   The bronze sculpture, on loan for a year from the Rodin Museum in
   Paris, is one of the original castings made by Auguste Rodin, sometime
   between 1881 and 1882.

   "The sculpture itself is majestic and it's extremely powerful," said
   Souraya Noujaim, in charge of collections at the museum in the United
   Arab Emirates' capital. "Rodin is one of the most iconic and most
   universal artists, so we've got really to have it in Louvre Abu Dhabi."

   The museum is designed to raise the oil-rich country's culturally open
   image -- even as it remains a federation of hereditarily ruled
   sheikhdoms. It's seen as the anchor of a cultural district that stands
   still largely unbuilt on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, the capital of
   the UAE that's more conservative than free-wheeling Dubai.

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