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September 18, 2012

President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening of new halls at the Louvre Museum devoted to Islamic art

A ceremony of opening of new halls at the Louvre Museum devoted to Islamic art was held, September 18.

 

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva and President of the Republic of France Francois Hollande attended the ceremony.

 

The Head of our state and his spouse was greeted by French President Francois Hollande.

 

Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Director General of the Louvre Museum Henri Loyrette said the State of France has been showing great attention to preservation of all cultures including the Islamic culture. From this point of view, the Louvre Museum is currently playing an essential role in achieving the dialogue between cultures. And new halls give an opportunity to get to know significant features of the Islamic culture.

 

Making a speech, French President Francois Hollande said that an official Paris is proud of crating an Islamic Culture department at the Louvre Museum and presenting this rich collection. The Head of the state of France said: ”Emerged as an idea in 2003 and started to be perfumed since 2008, this project primarily aims to show Louvre’s universality and its humane significance, and demonstrate how  the State of France treats the Islamic civilization.”

 

Francois Hollande thanked President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and other partners for their support to implementation of this project: “I would like to thank President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and other high guests for timely support, showing goodwill.  They all are our partners. They are the friends of France. They have made great contribution to this project. I hope this goodwill will continue in future too.”

 

The French President noted that, in addition to contributing to achievement of the dialogue among civilizations, this project has created an opportunity for those visiting the Museum to know the Orient better and identify similarities between the European and Islamic cultures.

 

Then the guests familiarized themselves with the Islamic culture section of the Louvre Museum. It was informed that creation of this section is a special phase in Louvre’s history. This section represents examples of Islamic civilization’s architectural, artistic and other cultural creativity. The Islamic culture section of the Museum is comprised of examples of creativity related to various Muslim countries’ cultures. Over 5 thousand complete samples of  art, more than one thousand incomplete and damaged creative works including various ceramic, glass and metal items, carpets, garments and miniatures are exhibited here. Pieces of art related to states existing in various periods of the Islamic history are also preserved in the Islamic section of the Museum.

 

It was noted that, along with France, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Oman and Morocco have also played a significant role in the opening of the halls.

 

Guests were photographed after familiarizing themselves with the Islamic art section of the Museum.

 

Then President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva were photographed in the Museum’s yard.


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