In an impassioned address at the same event, the Louvre director, Jean-Luc Martinez, said that “the Louvre Abu Dhabi has finally been born. This project is first and foremost an Emirati initiative; they have decided that the 21st century will be for knowledge and culture. We share how globalisation was made,” he said, adding that “we push back fanaticism.” “We need to find an antidote to the poison of hate,” he said, pointing out also that the Louvre Abu Dhabi “affirms not only France’s past but its future”.