Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum to have 10th Century Bronze Statue of Lord Nataraja

published on October 14, 2014

Upcoming $630 million Louvre Abu Dhabi (LAD) museum is to have a tenth century 86 cm high bronze statue of Lord Shiva in its permanent collection. The statue, which originally belonged to Chola period of Tamil Nadu, has been in the collection of National Gallery of Australia in Canberra till 2009.

Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, commended LAD for including Lord Shiva statue in its permanent collection and urged it to add more Hindu artifacts in its collections. “Art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth,” Zed added.

A superb example of Indian Chola-period bronze casting, this statue represents Lord Shiva in the iconographic Nataraja form, or Lord of Dance. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. A video posted on the LAD website explains the meaning behind various parts of the statue.

Rajan Zed urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d’Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., to enrich their collections of Hindu artifacts and to frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

Built on Saadiyat Island, 700,000-square-foot LAD will loan 300 masterpieces from 13 French museums, including those of Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, etc for its opening in December 2015. It is claimed to be the largest global cultural project since New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened in 1870.

(With media inputs)