Model for Guggenheim branch in Abu Dhabi, designed by Frank Gehry

The Guggenheim Foundation has embarked on its most ambitious outpost yet: a 300,000 sq ft modern art museum designed by Frank Gehry on an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. Construction has not started, but the Persian Gulf nation has a “systemic” worker abuse problem at other construction sites in the booming region, Human Rights Watch spokeswoman Sarah Leah Whitson said Tuesday.

According to the human rights organization, the Guggenheim museum officials have not addressed concerns about how workers would be treated during the construction. “We know how construction workers are used and abused in the U.A.E.,” the spokeswoman said. “We know with confidence that workers are going to be subjected to these conditions unless the museum does something to insist otherwise.” “The museum has the chance now, but they will be powerless to stop it once the contracts are signed,” she said.

Read article (International Herald Tribune/AP, November 13, 2007)
Read article (Human Rights Watch, July 19 2007)
Read article ‘Guggenheim to build museum in Abu Dhabi’ (Guardian, July 10, 2006)