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26 Mar 2019
US$434m museum opens in Qatar with more than 1,500m of gallery space
BY
Luke Cloherty
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The museum, which has been likened to a utopia, is built in the shape of a desert rose.
photo: Image by Iwan Baan
Cultural space developments in the Gulf region continue apace with the opening of a new US$434m (€383m, £328.7m) museum in Doha, Qatar. The new National Museum of Qatar comes as other Gulf states have made huge strides in opening cultural institutions recently. Earlier this month, Iraq’s Basra Museum opened three new galleries at its premises at former dictator Saddam Hussein’s palace and, last year, the Saudi government announced that it will invest SAR50bn (US$13.3bn, €11.2bn, £9.9bn) into lifestyle destinations.
The museum, which is built in the shape of a desert rose, opened to the public on 21 March and held a huge fanfare ceremony the day before, with Qatar's ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe in attendance.
The 52,000sq m (569,000sq ft) structure is located on Doha's waterfront and its entrance sits behind 114 fountain sculptures in a 900m long lagoon. The museum's roof, meanwhile, is made up of 76,000 shapes and resembles a giant jigsaw puzzle.
Inside, 1,500m of gallery space feature a 19th-century carpet, which is embroidered with 1.5 million Gulf pearls, and the oldest Koran yet discovered in Qatar, which also dates back to that period.
Originally scheduled for 2016, the museum has been a decade-long project from concept to conclusion.
"On the basic level the museum represents Qatari identity which has really accelerated in the post-blockade environment," said Sigurd Neubauer, a Middle East analyst based in Washington DC.
"It's really not about the building, Qatar is trying to create an environment and national identity that provides a space towards independent thinking."
Sheikha Amna bint Abdulaziz bin Jassim al-Thani, the museum's director, added: "This is a museum that narrates the story of the people of Qatar."
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