Hyundai wins $434m deal to build Qatar museum

Hyundai Engineering & Construction said on Sunday it had won a $434m order to build the National Museum of Qatar in Doha. The South Korean construction firm said it had secured the final contract from Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) to build the museum on a site of 46,000sq m in the country's capital.The company added in a statement that it expected the construction work for the facility to take 33 months.Gas-rich Qatar has invested billions of dollars in recent years in an effort to become a cultural hub in the Gulf.  The new National Museum of Qatar, designed by Jean Nouvel, is scheduled to open in December 2014, according to the QMA’s website. The emirate is already home to the I.M.Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art and the Qatari Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, said in October he would be keen to buy London auction house Christie’s. The former chairman of Christie’s International, Edward J. Dolman, left the privately-owned auction house in June to join the board of the Qatar Museums Authority. Qatar’s museums authority administers collections of Islamic art, Orientalist paintings, natural history, photography, armor, Islamic coins, costumes and jewellery. From / Arabian Business News