THE LOUVRE TO OPEN IN ABU DHABI WITH $654 MILLION PRICETAG
A consortium led by Dubai-based Arabtec Holding will build the Louvre Abu Dhabi art gallery for $654 million, the developers of the project announced on Tuesday. Abu Dhabi Tourism Development and Investment Company said construction would start immediately with the aim of opening the museum in 2015. The contract was awarded to an Arabtec-led joint venture with Spanish company Constructora San Jose SA and Oger Abu Dhabi LLC “following a competitive tendering process,” it said in a statement. The contract, valued at 2.4 billion dirhams (around $654 million), signifies a major milestone in the progress of the Louvre Abu Dhabi,” it added. Abu Dhabi has paid around $1.3 billion to […]
IT’S A GOOD YEAR FOR SCARCE BUBBLES
First the bad news: there is going to be a lot less champagne to go round this year. The good news: what there is could be outstanding. After one of the worst spring growing seasons on record, producers of champagne are bracing themselves for one of the smallest harvests in the last 20 years. But thanks to a hot and sunny August, all the signs are that the chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes that go into the king of sparkling wines will be packed full of flavour. “The vines suffered every possible disaster up to the middle of the summer,” admitted Champagne wine board (CIVC) spokesman Thibault Le […]