Louvre Abu Dhabi opens Spices and Wonders: Sailing the Indian Ocean on October 14, 2026, with more than 240 artworks and historical objects assembled from 24 international lenders across seven countries. The exhibition runs until February 14, 2027, and traces more than 1,000 years of maritime trade and cultural exchange across Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. It also marks the museum’s largest contribution of artworks from its own collection to any exhibition since it opened in 2017.
Getting the objects in place was itself an operation. Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Alfonso Ferdinand A. Ver visited during installation and met the couriers accompanying the Philippine pieces. That shipment is substantial: more than 30 pieces from the National Museum of the Philippines and the Ayala Museum, including artifacts from the Surigao Treasures, reflecting the Philippines’ maritime heritage and its historical connections with other cultures through trade.
The show is organised as a working structure of six sections, covering the origins of Indian Ocean trade routes, long-distance navigation, ships and cargoes, valuable goods and spices, the people involved in these networks, and the spread of beliefs, knowledge and artistic traditions. Visitors move through ceramics, sculptures, textiles, metal objects, navigational instruments and six large-scale ship models. The experience extends beyond traditional displays with multimedia installations using sound, video and scents inspired by historical perfume traditions from the Arab-Ottoman world, China and India.
The objects on view carry the weight of the logistics behind them. Among the featured pieces is a manuscript by Ibn Majid, a celebrated 15th-century navigator from Ras Al Khaimah whose writings documented maritime knowledge and navigation routes. Visitors can also see ancient maps and objects from India, China, Vietnam and other parts of the world, as well as two pearls excavated at Delma Island dating back to the sixth millennium BC. The collection includes a large printed cotton textile from India dating to around 1700-1725, a sculpture of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara from southern Vietnam dating to the seventh or eighth century, and a globe from Germany dating to around 1535.
Meanwhile, the lenders span the Gulf Cooperation Council, Southeast Asia and Europe, a coordination effort that underpins the exhibition’s central claim: that the Indian Ocean once functioned as a major trading network where merchants exchanged spices, precious stones, pearls, textiles, jewellery and other goods, and that these journeys brought communities into contact, influencing customs, beliefs, craftsmanship and everyday lives. The exhibition also highlights the UAE’s historical role in maritime trade, with coastal communities and ports serving as links between the Arabian Peninsula and other parts of the Indian Ocean world.
For Filipinos living in the UAE, the show offers a way to explore the region’s long-standing connections with Asia and to learn how maritime routes helped shape the movement of people, goods and ideas across borders. The Philippines, with its own rich maritime traditions, is directly represented through the museum loans described above, giving visitors a view of the historical exchanges that brought cultures closer together long before modern air travel and global commerce.
Delivery of the visitor programme extends beyond the galleries. The exhibition includes activities for adults, families and younger visitors: a children’s trail featuring questions and fun facts, guided tours, film screenings, and exhibition-related sessions under the museum’s ongoing family and drawing programmes.
Practical details matter for anyone planning a visit. Spices and Wonders: Sailing the Indian Ocean runs at Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island from October 14, 2026, to February 14, 2027. The museum is open from 10 am to 6:30 pm from Monday to Thursday and from 10 am to 8:30 pm from Friday to Sunday. Advance e-ticket booking is required and can be arranged through the Louvre Abu Dhabi website. Whether the museum can sustain visitor numbers across the full four-month run remains the open question for its operators.