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Louvre Abu Dhabi acquires its first photographic works

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has started collecting photography, making its first acquisitions in the field, which include a daguerreotype by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey showing a veiled woman, Ayoucha, around 1843 and Roger Fenton's Pasha and Bedouin, 1858. The works are among the latest round of acquisitions announced by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, which is overseeing the museum project. Ayoucha was sold at Christie's, London, on 18 May 2004 for £19,120 (see: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObje...)

Other works entering the collection include and two negatives of ancient temples by Reverand George Wilson Bridges. The Louvre Abu Dhabi has also acquired a sculpture of a Bactrian princess dating from the third millennium BC, a pavement and fountain set from the early Ottoman period, as well as the paintings Breton Boys Wrestling, 1888, by Paul Gauguin and The Subjugated Reader, 1928, by René Magritte.

The full report can be found here.

Details about the museum are here

Photo: Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey's Ayoucha, 1843 (© Louvre Abu Dhabi)