Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, on the proposal of Laurence des Cars, President and Director of the Louvre Museum, has appointed Souraya Noujaim as Director of the Department of Islamic Arts of the Louvre Museum and responsible for the large national heritage department of Islamic arts. Souraya Noujaim will take office on June 26, 2023, succeeding Yannick Lintz who was appointed President of the National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet on November 1, 2022.
Souraya Noujaim is currently the Scientific Director in charge of the conservation and collections of the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, whose development she orchestrated. Since 2018, she has led the scientific team and oversees the museum’s cultural and scientific program, the collection development strategy, the programming of temporary exhibitions in co-production with France Muséums and partner museums, training policy related to conservation occupations, as well as scientific aspects of international partnership programs. She defined the museum’s research policy and oversaw the creation of its laboratory.
Internationally recognized expert in the arts of Islam, Souraya Noujaim holds a PhD from the University of Paris X in the history and archaeology of the medieval worlds, graduate of the Ecole du Louvre and a master’s degree in art history from the University of Paris IV. She has notably worked as a scientific collaborator at the Louvre Museum in the field of Islamic arts, as a mission officer at the British Museum in Arabic and numismatic epigraphy, and as scientific director of France Muséums in charge of the permanent course Fifth - 15th centuries. She teaches regularly at the Louvre School and has been a lecturer for several years at the Arab World Institute. She is co-curator of several exhibitions at the Louvre Abu Dhabi and author of publications, articles and catalogues on the arts of Islam.
The Department of Islamic Arts of the Louvre was established in August 2003 and has been exhibiting its collection in the Visconti courtyard since September 2012, in a space of more than 3,000 m2.
With some 17,000 objects and the 3,500 works deposited by the Museum of Decorative Arts, this collection testifies to the richness and diversity of artistic creations in the lands of Islam between the 7th and 19th centuries, from Spain to India.