Future Facing | Manuel Rabaté to lead India’s largest private museum

Manuel Rabaté, the founding director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, is to leave the institution he has led for the past decade to become the first Chief Executive and Director of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Delhi, India’s largest private museum.

A future-facing institution founded and chaired by the collector Kiran Nadar, KNMA is preparing to move into a new building, designed by Adjaye Associates, near Indira Gandhi International Airport. The landmark complex — envisioned as the largest integrated cultural centre in India — is set to span more than one million square feet on the National Highway (NH8) in Delhi. Conceived as a multidisciplinary institution for visual and performing arts, the new museum will have a greatly expanded capacity for exhibitions, commissions, performances, and public programs. 

KNMA, which is active in making and receiving international loans, is noted for its collection of modern and contemporary south Asian art, including the work of Amrita Sher-Gil, MF Husain, and Atul Dodiya, and  and for its use of immersive formats at its existing locations and as travelling exhibitions. 

“The Rooted Nomad: MF Husain,” an exhibition drawn from KNMA’s exceptional collection of the Indian modernist’s work, was shown in Venice during the 2024 Biennale, accompanied by an immersive companion of the same title. The project, developed in collaboration with Qatar Museums, pulled together a number of threads that characterize the KNMA’s approach to pedagogy, technology and curating; in this case built around the international appeal of Husain’s remarkable output.

A work by Husain, sometimes described as India’s “national artist”, Untitled (Gram Yatra), was sold for $13.7m (with fees) at Christie’s New York in March 2025, a new record for Modern Indian art at auction, as well as for Indian painting. Husain was also co-creator with the late architect Balkrishna Doshi, of a remarkable hybrid artist-architect building, Amdavad ni Gufa (completed 1995), a project for a gallery in the city of Ahmedabad which became a community-focused permanent installation of Husain’s work, semi-submerged with tortoise-like domes and a cavernous, color-rich interior held up by megalith-inspired tree trunks.

The immersive version of “The Rooted Nomad: MF Husain” was shown in Qatar, Husain’s final country of residence, in 2025-26, coinciding with the opening in November of Lawh Wa Qalam: M.F. Husain Museum in Doha, the Qatari capital.

Kiran Nadar, Founder and Chairperson of KNMA said in a statement that she welcomed the appointment of Rabaté, “one of the international art world’s most experienced and respected leaders, with a ten-year record of exceptional success heading the Louvre Abu Dhabi”. “As we prepare to inaugurate the new, greatly expanded Kiran Nadar Museum of Art”, Nadar said, “which, at over one million square feet, will be the largest museum and cultural center in South Asia — we welcome Manuel Rabaté as a CEO and Director with the vision and skills to achieve our highest aspirations.” 

Manuel Rabaté said he was excited to join KNMA at a pivotal moment.

The museum, he said in a statement, “is not only shaping the story of Indian and South Asian art today but is also defining what a 21st-century museum can be — an institution that champions artists, inspires learners, and engages communities through innovative exhibitions, immersive experiences, and cutting-edge education programmes.”

Rabaté has been associated with Louvre Abu Dhabi since its inception, joining Agence France-Muséums shortly after the signing of an agreement between France and Abu Dhabi in 2008 that led to the founding of the museum. He led Louvre Abu Dhabi from 2016, overseeing its opening in  2017, the building of an international exhibition programme, and the growth of the museum’s permanent collection.

His appointment at KNMA, where he will work with Nadar and two existing directors, Roobina Karode, the Chief Curator, and Deepanjana Klein, Director of Acquisitions and Development, brings his experience of global museum leadership to bear on KNMA’s ambition to operate at the highest international standards while remaining rooted in the region.