The Ministry of Culture and Civil Society has agreed to buy a French mobile theatre, which will be dismantled and taken to Tripoli as part of the capital's hosting of the 2014 Arab Capital of Culture.

The sale, which was agreed on 18 December, will see Libya transport the 746-seat wooden theatre back to Tripoli next year.

The value of the purchase has not been made public, but French media report that the theatre cost some €4m (LD6.6m). 

The wooden theatre was built in 2012 and between January 2012 and March this year put on some 420 performances. The Comédie Française, which owns the theatre, has been reportedly seeking a buyer since April.

Currently in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal, in central Paris, the theatre is set to be dismantled in the first quarter of next year and shipped to Tripoli.

Tripoli has been named as the 2014 Arab Capital of Culture, an annual scheme run by the Arab League under the UN's Cultural Capitals Programme.

Picture: Le Figaro