Last summer, Hartwig Fischer resigned as the director of the British Museum, just days after it emerged that the museum had fired a curator who was suspected of looting gems from its storerooms.
Less than a year later, Fischer is back at the top of the museum world.
This week, the Saudi Museums Commission announced in a news release that it had appointed Fischer, a German art historian, as the founding director of its museum of world cultures, scheduled to open in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2026.
In the release, the commission said it had chosen Fischer, 61, because of his “global expertise in leading international cultural institutions and museums.” It did not mention Fischer’s time at the British Museum.
Fischer took the top job at the London institution in 2016, having previously run the State Art Collections of Dresden, a major group of German museums.
His tenure at Britain’s most-visited tourist attraction, which houses renowned artifacts including the Parthenon Sculptures (known as the Elgin Marbles) and the Rosetta Stone, was relatively smooth until last August, when the museum announced it had fired a curator in its Greek and Roman antiquities department on suspicion of looting jewels from its stores. In a news release at the time, Fischer said he was “determined to put things right” at the museum, but a string of revelations soon undermined his position.
Later that month, The New York Times and the BBC published extracts from emails showing that Fischer had downplayed the concerns about potential thefts raised by Ittai Gradel, an antiquities dealer based in Denmark.
As pressure on the museum grew, Fischer resigned, saying that it was “evident” the museum had not responded adequately to the allegations, and that “the responsibility for that failure must ultimately rest” with him.
Since Fischer’s resignation, the scale of the thefts has become clear. In March, court documents showed that the museum claims that Peter Higgs, who once ran the museum’s Greek and Roman antiquities department, stole or damaged over 1,800 artifacts in its collections and sold hundreds of those items online. Higgs denies the accusations and has not been charged.
The Saudi government has released few details of what its new museum will contain. This week’s news release said the museum would “offer visitors an extraordinary opportunity to explore human universals, shared values and the fascinating diversity of achievements across millennia and across the globe.”
On Friday, Saudi Arabia’s museums commission said in a statement that it chose to hire Fischer “after close examination of his profile” because he is an internationally recognized expert whose “integrity was demonstrated throughout his career.” Fischer could not be reached for comment.
Despite the scandal at the British Museum, on Friday some museum-world observers said that Fischer is a strong appointment for the new Saudi Arabian institution. Charles Saumarez Smith, a former director of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, said in a telephone interview that Fischer had a “depth of experience and ability to work across international frontiers” that made him “extraordinarily well qualified” to run a museum that would likely encompass the whole of human history.
Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees Berlin’s major museums, said that Fischer was “a good choice” who had taken responsibility for what happened at the British Museum.
Two weeks ago, Parzinger said, he met with Fischer to discuss how Berlin’s museums could collaborate with the new Saudi institution, including potentially loaning it artifacts, working on joint exhibitions, training staff and collaborating on educational projects. Those discussions were at an early stage, Parzinger said, adding that Fischer was still developing his plan for the museum’s layout and content.
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