Louvre Abu Dhabi names Souraya Noujaim as director
Louvre Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, has appointed Souraya Noujaim as its new director.
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, the emirate's government body for culture, announced the appointment. ArtReview reported the decision on 7 October 2026.
She succeeds Manuel Rabaté, the museum's founding director. Rabaté had led Louvre Abu Dhabi since it opened in 2017 and announced his resignation in February, according to The Art Newspaper. He is now director of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi, India. In practice, the director leads the artistic programme, approves loans and acquisitions, and answers for staff, budgets and partnerships.
She knows the building. Noujaim served as Louvre Abu Dhabi's first scientific, curatorial and collections management director. She held the post from February 2018 until April 2023, with responsibility for research, exhibitions and the care of objects on display and in storage. Scientific here does not mean laboratory science alone, but the art-historical research that decides what goes on the walls.
Before moving to Abu Dhabi, she was director of the Department of Islamic Arts at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. That role meant leading the curators and research for that section of the French museum's collection. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, she holds a PhD, the highest university degree, in Islamic Art History and Archaeology from Paris Nanterre University in France. That type of doctorate usually involves years of archival work, study of objects and field research.
In 2025 she curated Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire. To curate here means to select the works, shape the narrative and decide how they are presented to the public. It was the latest major credit on her exhibition record before the directorship was announced.
The museum itself rests on a long government-to-government deal. France and Abu Dhabi signed the contract creating Louvre Abu Dhabi in 2007. That agreement runs until 2047, twenty years after the museum first opened its doors under Rabaté.
For visitors, what makes this stand out is continuity. The new director is not arriving cold. She has already worked inside the same galleries, stores and offices she will now lead.
