India’s largest non-public artwork museum, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Artwork (KNMA) in New Delhi, has appointed Manuel Rabaté as its first chief government and director. He joins from the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the place he has served because the inaugural director since 2016.
Rabaté will transfer to KNMA within the first half of 2026, because it prepares to broaden considerably its footprint and scope, shifting from its current website inside a shopping center to its personal 100,000 sq. m constructing close to the Indira Gandhi Worldwide Airport.
The brand new museum is predicted to open “in two to 3 years”, in accordance with a spokesperson. Upon its completion, the David Adjaye Associates-designed complicated would be the “largest museum and cultural centre in South Asia”, says KNMA’s founder, Kiran Nadar, in a press release, and comprise quite a few exhibition, efficiency and theatre areas, a library, an archive and an schooling centre.
The Delhi posting shall be Rabaté’s first at a non-public museum. He arrived at Louvre Abu Dhabi after having helped to develop it as the pinnacle of Agence France-Muséums, a consultancy arrange for that objective, following an settlement between France and the UAE. Beforehand he held directorial roles at Paris’s Musée Quai du Branly and Musée du Louvre.
Rabaté tells The Artwork Newspaper: “I’ve all the time had a eager curiosity in South Asia and in India particularly for each its cultural richness and its institutional life. I’m excited to be a part of a mission that can change the museum panorama of the subcontinent. My position shall be transversal to the complete lifetime of the museum, partaking with all its actions, with the first concentrate on making certain readiness to function on the highest worldwide and regional requirements, to serve India and its communities and its guests.”
He’ll work alongside KNMA’s current management crew, together with its two current administrators, the chief curator Roobina Karode, and Deepanjana Klein, who oversees acquisitions and improvement, in addition to Nadar, who serves because the chairperson. Rabaté’s appointment brings “international museum management and deep expertise to KNMA, serving to realise the establishment’s imaginative and prescient of working on the highest worldwide requirements whereas remaining rooted within the area”, in accordance with a press release.
For the reason that inception of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Rabaté has overseen the museum’s operations, together with the development of its Jean Nouvel-designed constructing, establishing worldwide partnerships, rising its everlasting assortment and creating its exhibition programme. He additionally recruited a crew of curators in a area the place few such roles existed previous to the museum’s arrival.
His expertise in main a common museum, whose assortment spans pre-history to the current day, will show helpful on the KNMA, which is widening its present remit of Trendy and up to date South Asian artwork to embody earlier classes corresponding to antiquities and miniature work.
