Manuel Rabate is not ready to say goodbye just yet. For close to a decade, he has overseen Louvre Abu Dhabi from its earliest preparations to its emergence as one of the region’s defining cultural institutions. Now he is preparing for a new chapter, carrying forward a philosophy shaped by his years in the UAE.
The French museum head, who has led the institution since its opening in 2017, is stepping down to become director and chief executive of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi. The move brings to a close a period that has shaped both his professional life and the cultural landscape of Abu Dhabi.
“It’s actually the closure of 18 years of my life,” Rabate says. In 2008, he began working on Louvre Abu Dhabi project in Paris as head of Agence France-Museums, the organisation created to realise the landmark partnership between France and the UAE. In 2014, he moved to Abu Dhabi with his family to prepare for the museum’s opening. Two years later, he officially became director.
On a personal level, Abu Dhabi has become Rabate’s home, the city where two of his daughters were born and a multitude of friendships formed. He learnt Arabic – an ongoing project – and embraced Emirati and Arab culture. The project also reshaped his understanding of the place it was built to serve and rewired him in ways he is still discovering. “I touched the soul of this country,” he says. “I came here as a professional working on a museum project. But when you live here, when your children grow up here, when you experience the diversity of people who call this place home, it changes you.”
His tenure also coincided with the city’s emergence as a global cultural destination, with Louvre Abu Dhabi opening as the first completed museum in the still-growing and uniquely placed Saadiyat Cultural District.
When the museum opened beneath French architect Jean Nouvel’s vast dome, it represented something unprecedented: a global museum in the Arab world organised around the idea of a “connected history of art”, where objects from different cultures appear side by side, rather than separated by geography.
For Rabate, in retrospect, that approach was inevitable. “The name of the museum is Louvre Abu Dhabi,” he says. “With that name come two very demanding promises. One is the Louvre, one of the most famous museums in the world. The other is Abu Dhabi, a capital of the Arab world and a hub where people from many cultures meet.”
The idea has resonated with audiences. Last year, the site welcomed about 1.4 million visitors, placing it among the most visited museums in the Middle East and confirming its position as one of the UAE’s most prominent cultural landmarks.
“The idea is a connected history of art,” Rabate says. “It crosses more than 10,000 years of history through objects. But to reach that simplicity took nearly a decade of work between the teams.”
In its early days, many of those objects came from loans provided by partner institutions in France, including the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay and Centre Pompidou. Masterpieces such as Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronniere, Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps and works by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh helped introduce the museum to international audiences.
Since then, the balance has shifted steadily as Abu Dhabi has built its own permanent collection. “When we opened, about 60 or 70 per cent of the galleries relied on loans from French museums,” Rabate explains. “Thirty or 40 per cent came from the Abu Dhabi collection. Today, the Abu Dhabi collection is strong enough to structure the narrative itself.”
Acquisitions have ranged from ancient artefacts and Islamic manuscripts to modern paintings and contemporary works. At the same time, Louvre Abu Dhabi has expanded partnerships with institutions beyond France, bringing objects from their countries of origin directly to the UAE capital.
Rabate refers to these as “ambassador objects” – works that travel temporarily to participate in the museum’s global narrative. “This is something we wanted to create here,” he says. “Objects coming directly from different cultures and presented together.”
Alongside the permanent galleries, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s exhibition programme has played a central role in defining its identity. Early shows explored subjects such as trade routes across Arabia, and the exchange of artistic ideas between East and West.
Later exhibitions brought works by artists including Rembrandt, Monet and Jackson Pollock to audiences in the UAE.
More recent projects have pushed that dialogue further. Rabate points to the museum’s current exhibition – Picasso, the Figure – as an example of how the institution approaches art history. “This Picasso exhibition is one of the archetypes of what we wanted to achieve,” he says. “You can explore Picasso’s creative process and the historical layers of his work. But because we are Louvre Abu Dhabi, we also show the roots that inspired him – African art, Oceanic art, Greek and Roman works. And then the connections with the Arab world as well. This mix is definitely Louvre Abu Dhabi DNA.”
Beyond exhibitions, the museum has also experimented with new ways of engaging visitors through technology – from virtual reality experiences to digital tools that allow audiences to explore artworks in greater depth.
But Rabate sees a museum’s purpose as extending beyond the objects themselves. “A museum is like a small city,” he says. “You have curators, conservators, educators, security teams, technicians, marketers. All these professions work together.”
When Rabate walks the museum’s grounds, he stops to speak to various colleagues, from curators to security officers. He spoke to TN Magazine during his last week in Louvre Abu Dhabi. During the interview, several members of his team stopped Rabate to ask for a photo or to give him a heartfelt hug.
Over the past decade, many of those roles have been filled by Emirati professionals who began their careers as the museum was taking shape. “What I am most proud of is seeing people who started here and who are now leading departments or working across the region,” Rabate says.
When asked what the secret is to a museum’s success, Rabate speaks of the importance of partnerships and building a community. He is quick to point out that Louvre Abu Dhabi’s success was the result of collaboration, with colleagues at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, as well as the curators, scholars and staff who shaped the institution day after day.
When asked what is needed from a museum director, he pauses before saying a director is like an architect, putting different parts together. “I’m not an art historian,” he says. “My role is to build the machine that allows this encounter – between artworks, ideas and people.”
At a time when much of people’s time is spent online, Rabate reflects on the role of physical spaces and physical objects. While the knowledge of art history can be learnt through vast online resources, “a museum organises the encounter of physical collection and physical visitors in a setting that amplifies the understanding and magnification of beauty”, he says, adding that “it is all about a balance” between informing and sparking emotions.
Rabate’s departure comes as the broader cultural district around the museum is beginning to take form. Within walking distance, Zayed National Museum, Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and TeamLab Phenomena is each forging their own complementary identities since their opening last year, with Guggenheim Abu Dhabi set to join them in the coming months.
From the beginning, Rabate says Louvre Abu Dhabi was intended to be part of a much larger cultural ecosystem. “It was a gift to the world … with a new narrative of exchange and connectivity,” he explains. “It was always a collective vision. The museum was one step in a wider cultural project.”
But its influence already extends far wider than just its sister institutions on Saadiyat Island. Rabate believes Louvre Abu Dhabi has already begun influencing how scores of museums think about their role in a globalised world. Institutions across Europe, Asia and North America have increasingly experimented with cross-cultural narratives that highlight connections between civilisations, rather than presenting them in isolation.
“We became a benchmark,” Rabate says. The director who succeeds him, which is still under discussion, will inherit an institution that has moved well beyond its early experimental phase. “The architecture is very strong,” Rabate says. “The teams are excellent, the collection is growing and the district is taking shape. Whoever comes next will bring their own perspective.”
However, he acknowledges that the moment of handing over the reins at Louvre Abu Dhabi is “bittersweet” as he prepares for “the closure of 18 years of my life”.
Rabate’s next chapter will unfold thousands of kilometres away in India. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art is set to become the largest private museum in the country, with a vast new cultural campus designed by architect Sir David Adjaye under development.
The move also reflects a historical connection between the Gulf and the Indian subcontinent – regions that have long been linked through trade, migration and cultural exchange.
The challenge, he says, carries echoes of the work he undertook in Abu Dhabi. “I’m taking with me the methodology and the ambition of what we built here,” he says, reflecting on his learnings from Abu Dhabi. “But every project begins with understanding the place – the people, the culture, the city around it.”
As he walks the galleries of Louvre Abu Dhabi – still among the first to arrive each morning and the last to leave – he thinks about the millions who have passed through its doors since it opened.
He thinks back to the morning of November 11, 2017 – the first day the museum opened to the public. He was standing by the door with a gift in his hand for the first visitor when security informed him it was actually two little girls. Unable to offer them both the gift, he instead gave them a welcoming bow as someone snapped a photograph – an image he still treasures.
The moment took on new meaning last year. “They came back to visit,” Rabate says. “And they told me, with emotion in their voices, that Louvre Abu Dhabi had changed their life.”
His departure, he says, does not feel like an ending. “It is a continuity move,” he remarks. The role of museum director is about “building bridges” – between cultures, across time, and throughout the global art world. That mission continues – and Louvre Abu Dhabi will remain a central part of that for him moving forward.
“This is not a goodbye,” Rabate says. “It’s more an ‘au revoir’. The connection remains.”
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