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Saudi archaeological exhibition to go on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi

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Statue of an eagle standing on a bull’s head: 1-100 CE United Arab Emirates, Ed-Dur Stone. (Department of Tourism and Archaeology – Umm Al Quwain)
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Stele representing a man with dagger: 1st–3rd century BCE Calcite alabaster, 57 × 30 cm Qaryat al-Faw. (Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage)
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Burial mask: 1-100 CE Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province, Thaj, Tell al-Zayer Gold. (Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage)
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Head of a man: 100 BCE-200 CE Saudi Arabia, Qaryat al-Faw Cast bronze. (Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage)
Updated 30 September 2018
Arab News
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Saudi archaeological exhibition to go on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi

Updated 30 September 2018
Arab News

ABU DHABI: Saudi Arabian artifacts exhibition, Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures of Saudi Arabia, is set to open in the Louvre Abu Dhabi on November 8th under the patronage of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The exhibition, the second of the museum’s new culture season, will explore the rich history of the Arabian Peninsula through archaeological and cultural artefacts, including a selection of rare pieces from the United Arab Emirates.

The exhibition was conceived through cooperation between Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage (SCTH) and the Musée du Louvre in Paris, where it was first exhibited in 2010. It is one of the most renowned Saudi exhibitions on a global scale, introducing Arabia's cultural and historical heritage to over five million visitors worldwide. The exhibition has presented 14 acclaimed editions throughout Europe, the USA and Asia, sharing the story of this unique region with audiences around the world, before coming to Louvre Abu Dhabi where it will be enriched by selected pieces from the UAE.

“The United Arab Emirates and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have always been connected by a common heritage and history,” says H.E. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi. “This year’s edition of the exhibition will be a reflection of the rich, shared cultural heritage and deep-rooted history between the two nations.”

Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures of Saudi Arabia explores five chapters in the history of the Arabian Peninsula, spanning early prehistoric settlements; maritime exploration; caravan trading routes that linked the region with Asia, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean; routes of holy pilgrimage emerging in the 7th century CE; and the social and economic developments between the 14th and 16th centuries that set the stage for the modern day region.

“The Arabian Peninsula has been a place of exchange, culture and civilisation since earliest Antiquity, and Louvre Abu Dhabi is deeply rooted in the region’s unique history and context,” says Manuel Rabaté, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi. “The exhibition is an important opportunity for us to re-examine and celebrate this rich heritage through a remarkable series of artefacts, expanding on the regional pieces in our permanent collection to tell an Arabian story from a new perspective.”

Jamal S. Omar, Vice President of Antiquities and Museums Department at STCH, underscores the significance of the exhibition, given the special relationship between the two neighbouring countries and their shared cultural and historical heritage. It is especially notable, he adds, in that this is the exhibition’s first showing in the Arabian Peninsula outside of Saudi Arabia, shedding light on the ancient civilizations and trade routes of the Arabian Peninsula. The exhibition has been followed closely by His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, President of the STCH, in view of the esteem that Saudi Arabia has for the United Arab Emirates, its rulers and its people. "Although the exhibition focuses on Saudi Arabia's civilizations, it also highlights the civilizations of the Arabian Peninsula including major hubs along the ancient trade routes, which were important links in the cultural and historical narrative of this highly strategic region," Mr. Omar comments.

“From overland camel caravans and maritime trading routes to paths walked by religious pilgrims, the roads of Arabia have always been of vital importance to economic development, early settlement and the exchange of ideas, customs and cultures across the region and beyond,” says Dr. Souraya Noujaim, Scientific, Curatorial and Collection Management Director at Louvre Abu Dhabi. “These roads are the thread of this exhibition, which presents a journey retracing exchanges, circulation and encounters in the Arabian Peninsula. Dynamic archaeological research in recent years has shed new light on the longstanding history and diversity of the region, and excitingly, the exhibition now includes a selection of objects from the UAE.”

The expanded exhibition to be displayed at Louvre Abu Dhabi is curated by Mr. Omar, Dr. Noujaim, and Noëmi Daucé, Chief Curator for Archaeology at Louvre Abu Dhabi. Louvre Abu Dhabi is assisted by two scientific advisors from the Musée du Louvre: Marianne Cotty from the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities and Carine Juvin from the Department of Islamic Art.

For the first time, the exhibition will feature important archaeological pieces from the United Arab Emirates, including a pearl found in Umm Al Quwain dating from 5500-5300 BCE (loaned by Umm Al Quwain Museum); a stone decorated with a wild camel from the late 3rd millennium BCE (loaned by Al Ain Museum), a remarkable 1st millennium BCE pieces from Saruq al Hadid (loaned by Dubai Municipality), as well as objects from Julfar (loaned by the National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah).

These will be displayed alongside significant artefacts from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including outstanding funerary Neolithic stela, a 3rd-century BCE bronze statue head (loaned by the Department of Archaeology at King Saud University); a 1st-century BCE gold funerary mask from Eastern Province (loaned by the National Museum in Riyadh), 9th-century engraved steles (loaned by King Fahad National Library); 4th-millennium BCE Anthropomorphic stele (loaned by the National Museum in Riyadh); a door of the Kaaba dating to 1355 (loaned by the National Museum in Riyadh), and a key of the Kaaba (loaned by the Department of Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre).

Alongside the exhibition opening, Louvre Abu Dhabi will organise a three-day celebration featuring a performance called “On the Roads of Arabia” – a creation from music, dances and poetry by 80 artists from the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, India, Indonesia and China with a contemporary, calligraphic street art drawing designed by Tunisian artist Koom. The cultural program accompanying Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures of Saudi Arabia will also feature film screenings selected by Hind Mezaina, curatorial talks, as well as a range of education workshops and guided tours related to the exhibition.

Entrance to the exhibition is free with the museum ticket. Visitors can tour the exhibition through a multimedia guide that is available in Arabic, English and French.

Topics: Saudi Arabia Roads of Arabia Louvre Abu Dhabi Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage (SCTH

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Sotheby’s ‘Origins II’: Local heroes go under the hammer 

Updated 15 January 2026
Arab News
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Sotheby’s ‘Origins II’: Local heroes go under the hammer 

  • Regional highlights from Sotheby’s ‘Origins II’ auction, which takes place Jan. 31 in Diriyah 
Updated 15 January 2026
Arab News

DUBAI: Here are some of the regional highlights from Sotheby’s ‘Origins II’ auction, which takes place Jan. 31 in Diriyah.

Mohamed Siam 

‘Untitled (Camel Race)’ 

Siam is described by Sotheby’s as “one of the most significant voices of the Kingdom’s second generation of modern artists.” His “highly discernible visual aesthetic,” the auction catalogue states, references European cubists and Italian Futurism, using “multiple overlapping planes to create an endless sense of movement” — an approach that “fragments visual reality, enabling the viewer to experience multiple viewpoints simultaneously.” This work from the late 1980s “shrewdly captures through a fractured, shifting perspective two camel riders in an enthralling, head-to-head race.” It marks Siam’s auction debut and is expected to fetch between $70,000 and $90,000.  

 

Abdulhalim Radwi 

‘Untitled (Hajj Arafah)’ 

The Makkah-born artist is one of Saudi modernism’s most significant figures. His “multifaceted practice was shaped by a profound engagement with regional heritage and the evolving aesthetic currents of the 20th century,” the catalogue notes. This 1967 oil painting is hailed by Sotheby’s as “a vibrant example of Radwi’s practice (at the time), depicting a bustling arrangement of tented structures rendered in his characteristic Cubist-inflected idiom. The tightly interlocking forms, rhythmic repetitions, and cool, airy palette evoke the temporal architecture of the Hajj pilgrimage, distilled into a kaleidoscopic composition that celebrates the textures and visual poetry of life in Makkah.” 

 

Mohammed Al-Saleem 

‘Untitled’ 

Another of the Kingdom’s modern-art pioneers, Al-Saleem was born in 1939 in Al-Marat province. His work, Sotheby’s says, “is celebrated for its distinct visual language, a style which the artist coined ‘Horizonism.’ Drawing inspiration from the shifting sands and gradating skyline of Riyadh as seen from the desert, as well as the intensity of the Saudi sun, Al-Saleem reimagined his beloved landscape through the prism of abstraction.” In works such as this 1989 oil painting, he “replaced the traditional horizon line with stylized forms resembling organic forms and Arabic calligraphy … a fusion of modernist abstraction and cultural identity.” 

 

Taha Al-Sabban  

‘Untitled’ 

This mixed-media-on-canvas work from 2005 typifies the Makkah-born artist’s modernist approach, which, Sotheby’s states “has been described as both an act of conservation and a homage to the nature and culture of his homeland.” The artist “used expressive color and form to preserve local memory — palm groves, open waters, and traditional architecture — while transforming the traditional cityscape into ascending, abstracted rhythms.” His work is often described as “nostalgic,” but the Al-Sabban is quoted by the Al-Mansouria Foundation as saying: “Although I am acutely aware of the passage of time, my aim is not nostalgia; instead I seek to capture the moment and reveal the life in the world.” 

 

Zeinab Abd El-Hamid 

 

‘Untitled (Shisha Shop)’ 

This 1987 watercolor is the work of one of Egypt’s most significant female artists of the modern era who belonged, Sotheby’s says “to a generation of artists who came of age during the cultural reawakening that followed Egypt’s independence.” Abd El-Hamid, the catalogue states, “painted with a refined sensibility, grounded in her belief in humanity’s ability to transcend hardship. She did not seek to romanticize the past, but to distill its forms and emotions into something enduring. Her work carries a sense of nostalgia for a rhythm of life rooted in shared dignity and poetic structure … rooftops, cafés, and courtyards become vessels of memory, harmony, and inner light.” 

 

Samia Halaby 

‘Copper’ 

Central to the Palestinian artist’s practice was the belief that “abstraction, like any visual language, is shaped by social forces and reflects the movements of working people and revolutionary ideas,” Sotheby’s states. This 1976 oil painting combines Halaby’s exploration of the diagonal as “a dynamic formal element” and of the reflective properties of metals. The work “eschews traditional linear perspective in favor of a compositional strategy that flattens and destabilizes the viewer’s gaze. Halaby achieves a sense of spatial infinity — not through illusion, but through repetition and variation.” 

 

Mahmoud Sabri 

‘Demonstration’ 

The Iraqi painter’s career, Sotheby’s says, was unique among his peers in his homeland. “He simultaneously explored Arab and European cultures, studied the history of painting, and created his own unique art language and style.” That language arrived after this particular oil painting from the early Sixties, a time in which “Sabri often returned to the subject of revolutionary martyrdom and probably referring to the events of the 1963 coup d’état.” In the foreground, a group of women surround a bereaved mother, who is weeping for her murdered son.  

Topics: Sotheby's Origins II Origins II Sotheby's Diriyah

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