Fresh from the Guggenheim Rio fiasco, French architect Jean Nouvel, apparently a glutton for punishment, may be taking his chances on yet another proposed Guggenheim Museum—this time, in Abu Dhabi. The ARTnewsletter doesn’t name an architect in its May 9 report:
According to an informed source, Abu Dhabi representatives have made a $2 million deposit to the [Guggenheim] foundation in connection with their discussions.
Nouvel told me, at the Apr. 10 New York press briefing for his new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, that he was scheduled to leave directly afterwards to discuss his Abu Dhabi plans with the Guggenheim’s Tom Krens.
Given Krens’s long and growing track record of unrealized projects, it’s astonishing that foreign governments keep throwing money at this visionary (but seemingly delusionary) master builder.
How many years ago was Bilbao?