The UAE capital is set to welcome the first edition of Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week, a four-day programme of exhibitions, auctions and discussions centred around exceptional objects and the people who seek them. The event runs from 2-5 December 2025 and is led by Sotheby’s in partnership with Abu Dhabi Investment Office, marking the next step in the city’s rise as one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for culture, art and luxury. The anticipated auction takes place at The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, bringing together collectors, scholars, artists, investors and curious observers in a setting that already feels central to the cultural landscape of the capital.
Saadiyat Island has, for some years now, been quietly shaping its own identity as a cultural district with international significance. The Louvre Abu Dhabi has altered the visual and intellectual landscape of the city and the forthcoming Guggenheim will only continue that conversation. It feels fitting, then, that a week devoted to rarity and cultural value should unfold on Saadiyat Island, amongst architecture that already invites reflection and the slow pace of attentive looking.
The timing of the event is also notable. It coincides with the Formula One Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi Finance Week and the Milken Institute Middle East and Africa Summit, ensuring that the city will be filled with international visitors, many of whom bring both deep curiosity and deep collections of their own. The atmosphere is expected to be energetic, but not frenetic – Abu Dhabi rarely feels rushed, even at its most eventful.
Sotheby's Abu Dhabi Luxury Auction
At the centre of Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week is a series of auctions presented by Sotheby’s. The items being brought to the capital are varied in medium but share a common characteristic: each is the result of exceptional skill and an unusually compelling story.
Among the highlights is the Desert Rose Diamond, a 31.86-carat Fancy Vivid Orangy Pink stone that is believed to be the largest of its kind ever graded. Its colour is the sort one usually sees only in sunsets over sand. It is estimated to reach as much as Dhs25 million.
The automotive offerings are no less distinctive. A 2017 Pagani Zonda 760 Riviera, finished in a lustrous pearl shade, is expected to attract considerable attention, partly because of its power but also because of the almost sculptural precision of its design. Its estimated price is Dhs36.7 million. Alongside it, a 2010 Aston Martin One-77 – one of just 77 examples ever made – will appear with an estimate of around Dhs5.5 million.
Collectors of timepieces will take particular note of the Rolex “Oyster Albino” Daytona reference 6263. Only a handful of these watches are known to exist and among those who study horological history, it has an almost quiet, ceremonial importance. The estimate is up to Dhs3.6 million, though such pieces often create their own logic when they enter the room.
There will also be a collaboration with McLaren Racing, involving three competition cars from Formula One, IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship, accompanied by access to the environments in which they are ordinarily seen only by a protected few. The inclusion of these cars introduces a more dynamic, almost kinetic energy to the programme, expanding the idea of what a collection can be – not a static archive, but a living engagement with innovation and performance.
What’s In Store at Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week
It would be misleading to describe Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week as an event designed solely for auction attendees. Much of the programme is open to those who simply wish to look, to learn, or to experience something unfamiliar.
Exhibitions throughout the week will offer the chance to see objects that are rarely available to public view. Discussions and talks will explore not only the individual histories of the items themselves, but also broader questions of cultural value, legacy, preservation and the global movement of art and design. There is something meaningful about being able to encounter rarity without the expectation of acquisition. It allows for reflection, curiosity and sometimes, unexpected inspiration.
The programme signals something about Abu Dhabi’s ongoing evolution. For years now, the city has been developing cultural projects with a deliberate and thoughtful pace. The intention has not been to replicate what exists elsewhere, but to create a distinctly Abu Dhabi sense of cultural life – one that values depth, stability and exchange over spectacle for its own sake. The arrival of Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week aligns naturally with that progression, not as a sudden flourish, but as the next step in a conversation already underway.
For residents and for those considering a deeper relationship with the city, the event reinforces what many already recognise: Abu Dhabi is a place where one can live surrounded by both beauty and quiet elegance, without the hurried intensity that sometimes accompanies cultural capitals. On Saadiyat Island particularly, there is a sense that life unfolds with a certain clarity. Villas look across open shoreline. Penthouses enjoy clear light and long horizons. The pace allows for attention – for books, for art, for thought, for conversation.
Final Thought
Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week is not simply a showcase of wealth or rarity. It is an invitation to linger, notice and appreciate the craftsmanship of a jeweller, the engineering of an automobile, the patience of a watchmaker, the brushstrokes of an artist. To consider, also, why certain objects become important to us – why we choose to surround ourselves with particular shapes, colours, histories and forms.
Some will attend to bid. Others will attend to learn. Others simply to see something remarkable. All are participating in the same cultural gesture: acknowledging that objects can carry meaning and that the act of collecting – whether grand or intimate – is a kind of storytelling.
December on Saadiyat will be a gathering of these stories. Not loud, not boastful, but assured, thoughtful and beautifully made.
