Louvre Abu Dhabi acquires Rembrandt, launches Dutch Golden Age exhibition Last December The Louvre Abu Dhabi acquired the Rembrandt oil sketch, “Head of a Young Man in Prayer”, for 47.4 million AED. The painting will be on display for the Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age exhibition hosted from Feb. 14 until May 18. The exhibition will be the largest collection of 17th-century Dutch Masters to be exhibited in the Gulf to date. Two other artworks that will be displayed are “The Lacemaker” and “Young Woman Seated at a Virginal” on loan from the Louvre in Paris and The Leiden Collection, respectively.

UAE hosts World Government Summit Dubai hosted its annual World Government Summit from Feb. 10 to 12. Speakers included International Monetary Fund Managing Director and Chairwoman Christine Lagarde, Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, economist Paul Krugman, businessman Sir Richard Branson and Bloomberg News co-founder Matthew Winkler. The summit covered a range of topics from economic reform, to tackling climate change.

Foundation stone ceremony for Hindu temple A religious ceremony to lay the foundation for a Hindu temple in Abu Mureikha will be held on April 20. Swami Brahmavihari, a Hindu priest, told The National “The shilanyas ceremony is a sacred Hindu ritual where the first foundation stones are sanctified and fixed in the ground as the base of the mandir [temple], the mandir’s foundations will be on these sacred stones.” Those interested in attending the event can register at mandir.ae. According to the Global Media Insight [https://www.globalmediainsight.com/blog/uae-population-statistics/], Indians comprise the largest ethnic group in the UAE. Like the Pope’s visit last week [https://www.thegazelle.org/issue/150/news/pope-visit], this event coincides with the UAE’s year of tolerance, providing a vivid display of the nation’s efforts to integrate the many diverse cultures within the UAE community.