Welcoming Shiva in new £1bn Louvre Abu Dhabi, Hindus urge more such artifacts

Abu Dhabi, Nov 9: Hindus are urging prestigious about £1bn museum Louvre Abu Dhabi (LAD) unveiled by French President Emmanuel Macron on November 8 to enrich its collection of Hindu artifacts.

Welcoming the reported display of 10th century dancing Shiva statue at LAD, and a painting of Krishna with gopis in its collection; Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, called it a step in the positive direction.

But Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, stressed the need to acquire more Hindu artifacts if LAD was really interested in portraying itself as a world-class museum and proving its claims of a “universal museum”.

Art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth, Rajan Zed said and added that LAD needed to share the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world to demonstrate its mission “to create human connections through art”.

Dancing Shiva, the 86 centimeters high Chola-period lost-wax bronze from Tamil Nadu (India); represents the Hindu deity Shiva in an iconographic form known as Nataraja, or Lord of the Dance; and has been in the collection of National Gallery of Australia in Canberra till 2009, reports suggest.

Built on Saadiyat Island and designed by renowned French architect Jean Nouvel, LAD, Abu Dhabi’s collaboration with Musée du Louvre of Paris, is also reportedly displaying works of Van Gogh, Picasso, Gauguin, Ai Weiwei, Whistler, etc. It is claimed to be the largest global cultural project since New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened in 1870.