When Katia Nounou took the helm of Sotheby’s Dubai office in 2017, she wasn’t just opening doors to an office—she was opening the Middle East to the global art market.
It is a quiet day in Dubai, but for Katia Nounou Boueiz, the day is anything but. From unveiling masterpieces for the first time in the UAE to orchestrating high-profile events, her days are marked by art and action in equal measure, and somewhere in the mix, a Picasso or Botticelli might find its way through her capable hands. As Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Middle East, Katia has spent the past seven years weaving connections that anchor the global art world in this burgeoning market. Speaking with Dubai Sotheby’s International Realty, she shares the story of a region that’s stepping into the spotlight, opening its doors to the international art stage and transforming its cultural landscape with fervour.
A Blank Canvas Of Opportunity
Katia joined Sotheby’s London at a catalytic moment for the global economy: in 2008, just before the financial crisis. With a degree in French Literature from the prestigious University College of London to hand, she began her career at Sotheby’s working in the private client sector, nurturing the Middle Eastern client base from London.
She said: “After graduating, I went straight into the private client group, with a special focus on growing the Middle Eastern client base. A key goal here was to nurture a new generation of collectors, including the sons and daughters of existing collectors already tied to the region, which we did by hosting young collectors events.”
“2008 was certainly a strange time to enter the workforce—just before a global financial crisis—but it taught me very quickly that we are a resilient company that is able to innovate and adapt to changing circumstances. It’s how we’re still in business over 280 years since we first started trading,” she added.
In 2015, Katia relocated to Dubai with her husband. Shortly after, she was presented with a momentous opportunity: to establish the first Sotheby’s office and gallery in the Middle East. Balancing the demands of leadership and motherhood with two babies under two, she embraced the challenge and officially opened the doors to Sotheby’s Dubai in 2017.
“It was a daunting yet exciting challenge,” she said. “Having already spent years in the company, I knew the brand inside and out and felt a deep loyalty to it. This connection made the task of introducing a historic auction house to a new region incredibly rewarding.”
A natural bridge between cultures, Katia grew up in London and went to a French school. She is deeply rooted in the Middle Eastern region by way of her Iraqi and Iranian parents – a perfect pairing for a city as cosmopolitan as Dubai, where 80% of the population is expatriate. She said, “Unlike London or New York, where collecting has been woven into the cultural fabric for centuries, the UAE market is nascent but rapidly evolving, fuelled by a surge in art collectors moving to the Emirates. Today, we are seeing more prestigious galleries opening, such as the Guggenheim and Louvre in Abu Dhabi, more exhibitions visiting, and a growing number of people who simply want to grow their collections, whether it’s vintage cars, jewellery, or art. This ecosystem just didn’t exist in 2015.”
She added, “The joy of collecting in Dubai is that people feel safer embracing the lifestyle that comes with collecting, whether it’s wearing the precious stones they purchase, or actually displaying valuable paintings on the walls of their home.”
A Turning Point: When Rembrandt Met The Middle East
They say greatness demands risk, and Katia proved this precisely in 2019 when she brought a religious Rembrandt masterpiece to Dubai for the first time.
“In the early stages of opening in Dubai, I contacted the head of the Old Masters department in London and asked if I could showcase this particular Rembrandt to Dubai, the Head of a Young Man with Clasped Hands. This painting depicts a young man in prayer as Jesus Christ, so the concern was that the painting would not resonate well in a Muslim country.”
After some persuasion, and with full confidence that the market would rise to the occasion, Katia arranged a spectacular unveiling of the masterpiece in Dubai, inviting the Minister of Culture and the Directors of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
In a moment that Katia describes as coming ‘full circle’, the Louvre Abu Dhabi acquired the piece within two months of it being unveiled. “This was the first time we saw a huge result from bringing a painting such as this to Dubai. It was a risk, but it was one of those things that just worked on an energetic level,” she reflected.
Other masterpieces exhibited by Sotheby’s in Dubai include Botticelli’s Young Man Holding a Roundel, which set a record in 2020 as the highest-value painting ever brought to the Middle East by an auction house at $80 million. This record was surpassed in 2023 after Picasso’s monumental Femme à la Montre was unveiled in Dubai as the first stop on its world tour. It also marked the first time the piece had been displayed outside of America in over 50 years.
It isn’t only centuries-old masterpieces passing through the galleries and auctions of Sotheby’s Middle East – a number of era-defining contemporary pieces are also regularly showcased, a notable example being Maurizio Cattelan’s contentious Comedian. A highly provocative piece of conceptual fine art, Comedian is the famed banana taped to the wall, positioned exactly 1.6 metres above the ground. Several days after the piece was showcased in Dubai Sotheby’s in November, Comedian sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for a staggering $6.2 million, attracting a slew of media headlines exploring the meaning of art and value.
The piece, as critiqued by art adviser Rob Teeters, is a “perfect representation of the times that we're living in, which celebrates spectacle.”
Local artists have also enjoyed the spotlight in Sotheby’s under Katia’s leadership. “There is a huge appetite for local artists, and we always have a strong presence of Emirati artists in our galleries and auctions because the demand is very much there. I am a keen collector of such works,” she said.
Sotheby’s latest initiative, the Gallery Collective, further celebrates regional creative talent. Partnering with ten local galleries—including Leila Heller Gallery, Tabari Artspace, and Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery—it transforms the DIFC space into a rotating showcase of boutique exhibitions, refreshed every six to eight weeks. The collective launched in November 2024 and will run for two years.
Abu Dhabi Is Emerging As A Cultural Powerhouse
The Middle East is no longer on the periphery of the international art world – quite the contrary. Earlier this year, ADQ, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, invested a staggering $1 billion into Sotheby’s, reaffirming its ambition of positioning the UAE and its neighbours at the forefront of cultural innovation and artistic excellence. This comes alongside the upcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a masterpiece of postmodern architecture set in the prestigious Saadiyat Cultural District, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2017.
Read more: Abu Dhabi Invests $1 Billion in Sotheby’s
Beyond the UAE, Sotheby’s is set to host its first-ever auction in Riyadh in February 2025 – a landmark event that signals the inauguration of Saudi Arabia into the world’s most prestigious luxury items market.
These developments symbolise a wider paradigm shift: one where the Middle East is no longer simply a market for wealthy nationals and international collectors, but a creator, curator, and custodian of cultural capital.
