Back to the Museum She Helped Build
Souraya Noujaim, a Lebanese art historian born in Beirut, has been appointed director of Louvre Abu Dhabi. She takes over the Saadiyat Island museum ahead of its tenth anniversary in 2027.
For Noujaim, this is a return rather than a first visit. She joined the Louvre Abu Dhabi project in 2013, four years before the museum opened in 2017. From 2018 to 2023 she led its scientific, curatorial and collections work, the part of the institution that decides which objects are acquired, how they are studied and how they are shown to the public.
From the Bekaa Valley to the École du Louvre
Noujaim was born in Beirut in 1967 and traces her family roots to the Bekaa Valley. Her interest in Islamic art began in childhood, on trips with her family. That early curiosity became a career in Paris, where she studied at the École du Louvre and earned a PhD from Paris Nanterre University.
In the 1990s she helped develop the Islamic art galleries at the Louvre in Paris. In 2023 she was named director of the Louvre's Islamic Arts department, a role that put her in charge of around 18,000 works.
A Lebanese Hand on the Gulf's Best-Known Museum
Noujaim's appointment places a Lebanese professional at the head of one of the best-known cultural institutions in the Gulf. It also links the two Louvres through a single career: she has now worked on the collection in Paris, on the opening of the Abu Dhabi museum, and on its curatorial direction for five years.
Her first major milestone in the new post is already fixed. Louvre Abu Dhabi marks ten years since its opening in 2017, and the anniversary programme in 2027 will be the first big test of her directorship.
