A Roman cameo, possibly depicting Agrippa Postumus, is on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi. Chris Whiteoak / The National
A Roman cameo, possibly depicting Agrippa Postumus, is on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi. Chris Whiteoak / The National
A Roman cameo, possibly depicting Agrippa Postumus, is on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi. Chris Whiteoak / The National
A Roman cameo, possibly depicting Agrippa Postumus, is on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Louvre Abu Dhabi's new loans and Mohammad Alfaraj's solo show


Razmig Bedirian
  • English
  • Arabic

At Louvre Abu Dhabi, new loans and acquisitions have been woven into the museum’s permanent galleries, adding fresh layers to its core universal narrative. At Ishara Art Foundation, a new exhibition brings a visual identity from the streets into a white cube space, while a show at Jameel Arts Centre delves into life in Saudi Arabia’s oasis city Al Ahsa.

Here are three exhibitions to explore this weekend.

New loans and acquisitions at Louvre Abu Dhabi

Grand blanc horizontal (1962) by Catalan artist Antoni Tapies. Chris Whiteoak / The National
Grand blanc horizontal (1962) by Catalan artist Antoni Tapies. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Louvre Abu Dhabi has introduced a new rotation of loans and acquisitions across its permanent galleries. The additions range from Roman portraiture and South Asian courtly art to modernist works.

Highlights include a finely carved Roman cameo thought to depict Agrippa Postumus, mounted in an 18th-century British setting; a luminous ivory-and-gold casket from 16th-century Sri Lanka; and Juan Luna’s enigmatic Una Bulaquena (1895), on loan from the National Museum of the Philippines.

Other artefacts build subtle conversations with existing displays: a limestone Head of an Ephebe from Cyprus joins other sculptures of the human face; a Gabonese reliquary figure enters a display of funerary objects; and Kandinsky’s White Oval (1921) marks a moment of artistic transition.

Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-6.30pm; Friday to Sunday, 10am-8.30pm; Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation

The World Out There (2025) by Fatspatrol. Photo: Ishara Art Foundation
The World Out There (2025) by Fatspatrol. Photo: Ishara Art Foundation

Curated by Priyanka Mehra, No Trespassing is Ishara Art Foundation’s first summer exhibition.

The show brings street aesthetics into the gallery, with six artists engaging with urban materials as both subject and medium.

Works by Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin), H11235 (Kiran Maharjan), Khaled Esguerra, Rami Farook, Salma Dib and Sara Alahbabi turn building materials, pavements, signage and surfaces into acts of mark-making. Rather than define what the street is, the exhibition reflects how it’s used, as a space that’s chaotic, curated, lived-in and constantly rewritten.

Monday to Saturday, 10am-7pm; until August 30, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Seas are sweet, fish tears are salty at Jameel Arts Centre

Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj's works span photography, film, installation and poetry. Photo: Art Jameel
Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj's works span photography, film, installation and poetry. Photo: Art Jameel

Art Jameel presents the first institutional solo exhibition of Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj. Rooted in his hometown of Al Ahsa, the works draw from agricultural landscapes, oral traditions and the details of everyday life.

The show spans photography, film, installation and poetry, unfolding across both the indoor galleries and garden spaces of Jameel Arts Centre. Hands, birds and palm trees recur throughout, forming a loose constellation of motifs. New commissions include a sound piece, a site-specific structure and a video work. The exhibition reflects Alfaraj’s interest in storytelling, moving across human and non-human worlds.

Saturday to Thursday, 10am-8pm; Fridays, noon-8pm; until January 4, Jaddaf Waterfront, Dubai

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Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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Winners

Ballon d’Or (Men’s)
Ousmane Dembélé (Paris Saint-Germain / France)

Ballon d’Or Féminin (Women’s)
Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona / Spain)

Kopa Trophy (Best player under 21 – Men’s)
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona / Spain)

Best Young Women’s Player
Vicky López (Barcelona / Spain)

Yashin Trophy (Best Goalkeeper – Men’s)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City / Italy)

Best Women’s Goalkeeper
Hannah Hampton (England / Aston Villa and Chelsea)

Men’s Coach of the Year
Luis Enrique (Paris Saint-Germain)

Women’s Coach of the Year
Sarina Wiegman (England)

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Red flags
  • Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
  • Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
  • Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
  • Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
  • Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.

Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching

First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus 

History's medical milestones

1799 - First small pox vaccine administered

1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery

1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases

1895 - Discovery of x-rays

1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time

1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

1953 - Structure of DNA discovered

1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place 

1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill

1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.

1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out

Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away

It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.

The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.

But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.

At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.

The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.

After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.

Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.

And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.

At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.

And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.

* Agence France Presse

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Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six

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Who was Alfred Nobel?

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.

  • In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
  • Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
  • Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015

- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France

Updated: July 10, 2025, 3:03 AM