Sotheby’s New Map
Katia Nounou Boueiz - Deputy Chairman, Middle East, Dubai
Abu Dhabi as a global nexus for auctions, private sales, and cultural diplomacy.
Maps don’t change loudly. They shift in boardrooms, in flight paths, in the quiet logistics of where masterpieces are sent and where capital flows back from.
This week in Abu Dhabi, that shift is visible.
For the first time, Sotheby’s is staging a full Collectors’ Week in the UAE capital: five live auctions on 5 December, a billion-dollar exhibition of art, jewellery, watches, handbags, collector cars and real estate, and a programme of talks and masterclasses that feels closer to a biennale than a sales week.
At the centre of this new map is Abu Dhabi — not as a satellite, but as a hub.
“We’re Dreaming Big”
Ford GT 2005-2006 Classic supercar
“So, what is your vision for Sotheby’s Middle East right now?” I ask Katia Nounou Boueiz, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Middle East.
Her answer is immediate. “The vision is big,” she says.
“We feel like we’re in the middle of a cultural revolution in Abu Dhabi.
There are incredible strategic investments in museums and in luxury.
We’re privileged to be part of this revolution.”
Sotheby’s has formally incorporated in Abu Dhabi, backed by long-term investment and aligned with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. Collectors’ Week is the first visible summit of that partnership.
“We’ve brought about a billion dollars of offerings,” Katia notes.
“Highly curated jewellery, watches, cars, fine art — the largest and most valuable exhibition an auction house has ever brought to the Middle East.
And this is the first auction by a leading international house in Abu Dhabi. It’s a huge milestone.”
Francis Bacon’s Three studies of Lucian Freud
Education as Diplomacy
If this were only about sales, the week would still be historic. But the strategy reaches further.
“I actually think we still have a lot to do in terms of education,” Katia says.
“That’s what Collectors’ Week is about. We’re bringing the works, yes, but also masterclasses, talks, fireside chats with leading experts in every category.”
Throughout 2–5 December, the St. Regis becomes a campus: jewellery literacy sessions, handbag connoisseurship, panels on Picasso, Jane Birkin, the future of collecting in the Gulf. Specialists are not just closing sales — they’re opening worlds.
“We want to build a collecting culture in Abu Dhabi,” Katia explains.
“We’ve come a long way — the museums here have done so much — but there’s still so much untapped potential.
For this to remain a rising global market, we need to keep growing the community.”
Education here functions as a kind of soft power: a bridge between global expertise and regional intuition, a way of aligning sovereignty with connoisseurship.
Ferrari Enzo
Abu Dhabi’s Advantage
For both Vanessa and Andrés, there’s one point they keep returning to: safety.
“We’re lucky to be in a place where people can wear jewellery, wear watches, drive cars, and feel safe,” Katia says.
“In today’s world, that’s becoming rare. So we thought: let’s show everything this region can host and enjoy.”
Morgane echoes this from the handbags side.
“In some cities, people hesitate to own very expensive pieces because they feel they can’t wear them,”she notes.
“Here, it’s different. People understand the craftsmanship — and they actually live with their luxury.”
This simple reality — that you can step out in a Kashmir sapphire, a Patek Star Caliber, a Himalaya Birkin, without fear — gives Abu Dhabi a unique role in the new map. It’s not just a place to store value, but to experience it.
Patek Philippe Geneve Watch
One Week, Five Auctions, A Long Horizon
On 5 December, five major auctions unfold back-to-back: Jane Birkin’s Le Voyageur as a single-lot sale; a $20 million single-owner jewellery and watches collection centred on The Desert Rose; an RM Sotheby’s car sale with McLaren race cars and hypercars; plus real estate and additional luxury offerings.
But the real horizon is longer. “Sky’s the limit,” Katia says simply.
“We want to introduce more auctions, more frequently.
Eventually, we want to bring full art auctions to Abu Dhabi — when the time and the market feel right. There is so much that is still untapped.”
She’s been coming to Abu Dhabi for 18 years.
“It’s incredible to see the evolution. I’m proud to be part of this story. And with our partners, we’re in such a good place to see this dream come true.”
Katia Nounou Boueiz - Deputy Chairman, Middle East, Dubai. Oona Chanel - Editor-in-cheif, Author Magazine
The New Map
In practical terms, Sotheby’s new map includes:
• Abu Dhabi as a permanent node for high-value auctions and private sales
• The Gulf as a natural home for multi-category, cross-disciplinary exhibitions
• A new generation of collectors — younger, more global, often female — moving freely between categories and price brackets
In symbolic terms, it marks a transfer of cultural gravity.
For decades, the map of “serious collecting” ran through New York, London, Geneva, Hong Kong. That map is being redrawn — not to erase those centres, but to acknowledge that another one has quietly lit up.
For now, it is marked by four days in December, a billion dollars’ worth of objects, and a series of conversations in a hotel on Saadiyat Island.
Over time, it will be marked by something harder to plot: the moment when the world stopped seeing Abu Dhabi as an offshore audience, and started seeing it as what it is becoming —
A place where the future of value is being decided.
Words by Oona Chanel for Author Magazine
Pictures courtesy Ron John
