Art Dubai is considered a prominent art fair of the Middle East, shining a light on modern masters and contemporary voices from the MENA region and the Global South. At the helm of this annual event is Benedetta Ghione, an Italian expert of art business and art history, who has been with the Art Dubai group for a decade. Here, Ghione shares a light-hearted museum story from her youth and what she believes make museums magical and important.

“A museum interaction that sticks out in my mind was visiting the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, when it was still quite new,” she says. “I must have been very young, but the moment is clear in my mind. I remember standing in front of Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, thinking it was magical. I was clearly taken by it as I leaned in to touch it, my mother nearly fainted! Museums are where we encounter beauty and the unexpected, and where we are invited to question and be curious. As markers of place and history, these institutions matter because of how they preserve human stories and artistic expression within these culturally rich settings. They are spaces of important art historical research, cultural memory, and public engagement—even when that includes a bit of harmless childhood mischief.”