French Minister of Culture Renaud Vabres looks at a model of the Louvre Abu Dhabi on a big screen during the signing of a cultural exchange agreement in Abu Dhabi March 6, 2007. Credit: Reuters/Osayd Hasan
The emirate's tourism arm, which is also building a branch of New York's Guggenheim museum in the Gulf
Arab emirate, confirmed construction will begin in the first quarter of 2013.
Both museums were originally scheduled to open between 2013 and 2014 but were delayed due to a government review of projects.
The museums and New York University are among institutions that plan to set up branches on Saadiyat Island, a $27 billion cultural project in Abu Dhabi, where they will be housed alongside a golf course and high-end housing developments.
"The contractor will move (in on the Louvre project) very soon. Construction will start in the first quarter of 2013," Nabil al-Kendi, Tourism Development & Investment Company's chief development officer said on Monday at an MEED conference.
The development of Saadiyat Island is one of the largest cultural projects in the Middle East but last year more than 130 artists said they would boycott the Guggenheim museum there over what they said was exploitation of foreign workers.