Paris’s famed Louvre museum yesterday opened to the public a new wing of Islamic art in a bid to improve knowledge of a religion often viewed with suspicion in the West.

Costing nearly €100 million, it is funded by the French government and supported by handsome endowments from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, Oman and Azerbaijan.

About 3,000 precious works from the seventh to the 19th centuries are spread across 3,000 square metres over two levels.

The project, inaugurated by President François Hollande last Tuesday, groups 18,000 treasures from an area stretching from Europe to India and includesthe oldest love letter in theIslamic world.

Denise Spacensky, one of the first visitors to the new wing, said the opening came at an opportune time “with everything that is happening in the world”, and said the exhibits show “Islam as a refined, peaceful civilisation”.

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