ABSTRACT
This is particularly relevant for museums in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): a regional political and economic union between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Recent years have seen a ‘museum boom’ in the GCC (Erskine-Loftus 2013: 2), with regional flagship projects, such as the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha and the new and expanded national museums emerging in many major cities. Concerns about globalisation, the dominance of expatriates and the perceived loss of local culture and values that began in the mid-twentieth century have intensified over the years (Geraci 2009: 47), and these new museums reflect a desire to protect and promote the heritage that is so central to the conception of nationhood.
