Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
When it comes to cultural icons, few would mention Manchester City soccer club in the same breath as the Louvre. But to Abu Dhabi's royal family the club is the latest in a string of multibillion-dollar acquisitions designed to rebrand the nation as an oasis of western culture in the Gulf.
Our neighbouring state is spending billions of dollars buying the rights to internationally recognised cultural brands, including a deal to build the first branch of the Parisian art gallery outside France and the world's largest Guggenheim. Work is also under way on a Ferrari theme park in collaboration with the Italian sports car company, while the first ever Picasso exhibition currently on show in the Middle East features 186 paintings, drawings and sculptures from the Musee National Picasso in Paris.
The vast wealth of the United Arab Emirates stems from the discovery of almost 10 per cent of the world's oil reserves beneath its sands, and the leaders of Abu Dhabi - the second most populous city in the UAE - have established The Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi to attract cultural seekers who crave authenticity, exclusivity and quality.
Until the 1960s the tiny kingdom did not have a metalled road and was sustained mainly by camel herding, farming, fishing and pearl diving in the Gulf. Then came the oil wealth, now being spent on infrastructure to the tune of $200 billion in the next seven years.
When he signed the 30-year deal to use the Louvre name on a gallery designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi, heralded a major achievement in Abu Dhabi's vision to become a world-class destination bridging global cultures which will create an enriching environment to be treasured by and to educate generations to come.
It has been reported that the Emirate has paid $548 million to use the Louvre name and is expected to pay an additional $788 million for management advice and art loans from the Louvre and other French museums, including the Pompidou Centre and the Musee d'Orsay.
The Louvre will be built on Saadiyat Island (Happiness Island), a new cultural district in the Arabian gulf connected to Abu Dhabi city by a 10-lane highway. It will also feature the Guggenheim - to be designed by Frank Gehry - a new concert hall by Zaha Hadid, the British architect of the London 2012 aquatics centre and a national museum named in honour of the late ruler, Shaikh Zayed, to be built by Lord Foster. Japanese architect Tadao Ando is designing a maritime museum to complete what government officials call one of the most impressive constellations of cultural attractions ever assembled.
Shaikh Khalifa's brother, Shaikh Mohammed, said Saadiyat Island would help interconnected global understanding and create the world's largest cultural destination across 27 sq km. The Guggenheim, Louvre and national museum are due to open before 2013.
"They have realised they cannot go on by simply distributing oil wealth to their population and so the idea is to turn Abu Dhabi into a sophisticated, internationally-renowned viable state," said Professor Gerd Nonneman, director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University in the UK. "They are also hoping to use this as a way of attracting higher level expatriates."
A branch of the Sorbonne has already opened in a deal partly intended to set a new benchmark for standards of higher education. Nonneman added that it appeared Abu Dhabi was also motivated by a battle of one-upmanship with Dubai, its neighbouring Emirate which "has stolen the limelight" with its mix of hotels, shopping malls and theme parks which attract hundreds of thousands of expatriates and tourists. By contrast, Abu Dhabi aims to become "a beacon of general culture", he said.
That is an approach that seems crass to some. Peter York, the branding expert, claimed Abu Dhabi's tactic of acquiring international cultural brands was "like building Venice in Las Vegas".
He said: "They are buying what we call 'borrowed interest' and that can work, but if you are trying to convince sophisticated people in sophisticated economies that you too are a sophisticated economy, it is not enough. What really matters to inward investors are things like governance and the availability of an adaptable and highly-educated workforce."
Abu Dhabi's embrace of western cultural brands has proved controversial. In France more than 5,000 intellectuals signed a petition against the deal with the Louvre arguing that "museums are not for sale".
But the Gulf state is confident it will attract the right sort of visitor. "They are people who use travel to enrich themselves, always seeking new experiences in new countries and they have enough money to go wherever they choose," said the Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi. "They want unique experiences that feed their sense of discovery. They reject the sameness that increasingly dominates their lives .. they crave authenticity, exclusivity and quality."
