Gehry's Abu Dhabi museum opens on 11 December

The Guggenheim on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi opens on 11 December 2026, designed by Frank Gehry. The building covers 80,000 square metres in total, with 11,600 square metres of interior galleries and 23,000 square metres of outdoor exhibition space, arranged around thirty galleries of varying height and configuration. Its most visible feature is a ring of ten sculptural cones around a central atrium, nine in stainless steel mesh and one in onyx and glass, the tallest reaching 88 metres. Construction began in 2011 and ran, with interruptions, for fifteen years.

Investment is reported at over a billion dollars, making this the largest of the Guggenheim's four institutions. The collection is organised thematically rather than nationally, under headings such as Abstraction, Popular Culture and Land, with emphasis on work from the Middle East, Asia and North Africa. The opening also completes the Saadiyat Cultural District alongside the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Zayed National Museum. After fifteen years, the real test is the programme, not the roofline.