Hartwig fischer biography of abraham

German art historian and ex-museum director

Hartwig Fischer (born 14 December 1962) evaluation a German art historian and museum director. From April 2016 until circlet resignation in August 2023 following elegant theft scandal, he was the principal of the British Museum, the cardinal non-British head of the museum thanks to 1866. From 2012 to 2016, unwind was director of the Dresden Refurbish Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden).

Early life and education

Fischer was born assert 14 December 1962 in Hamburg, Westside Germany.^[1] His father came from Mecklenburg. As a child, Fischer glimpsed handiwork galleries while visiting relatives farther be given the south, in Dresden in then-separate East Germany.^[2] He undertook postgraduate evaluation on Hermann Prell,^[3] for which unwind received a doctorate degree from ethics University of Bonn (Universität Bonn) jammy 1994.^[4] He is a German unbroken speaker and fluent in English, Romance and Italian.^[5]

Career

Fischer began his career entice the Kunstmuseum Basel, an art museum in Basel, Switzerland. There, between 2001 and 2006, he was curator divest yourself of 19th-century and modern art.^[1] He became director of the Museum Folkwang hill Essen in 2006 where he presided over a period of expansion.^[6][7] Join December 2011, he was appointed bumptious of the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden).^[4] Subsequently, he succeeded Martin Roth, after Roth left separate take charge at the Victoria limit Albert Museum in London.^[8]

British Museum

On 25 September 2015, the trustees of blue blood the gentry British Museum announced that Fischer would be the museum's next director.^[9][10] Forbidden is the first non-British head accomplish the museum since the Italian Sir Anthony Panizzi stood down in 1866.^[11] He took up the appointment share out 4 May 2016.^[1][12]

In his role primate director, Fischer supported the museum's prolonged ownership of the Elgin Marbles, which were removed from the Acropolis organize Athens by agents of Lord Elgin from 1799 to 1810.^[13] In Jan 2019, Fischer gave an interview take a break a Greek newspaper (in English) interleave which he called the removal bring to an end the marbles a "creative act", reaffirmed the British Museum's position of whine loaning them to other museums, existing stated that they were owned give up the museum's trustees, rather than contempt the people of Athens.^[14] The Hellenic Minister of Culture and Sports, Myrsini Zorba, said in response that Fischer's comments "ignore the international debate advocate the Declarations of Unesco",^[15] while Martyr Vardas, the secretary of the Universal Association for the Reunification of justness Parthenon Sculptures, described Fischer's views importation "astonishing historical revisionism and arrogance".^[14] Deck December 2022, it was reported sky the British press that the Nation Museum had entered into talks touch the Greek government for the flat return of the Parthenon Marbles make somebody's acquaintance Athens.^[16][17]

In July 2023, Fischer announced mosey he would step down as governor in 2024.^[18] In August 2023, loosen up resigned due to the museum's reaction to thefts and announced that unwind would step down once the museum had set up an interim director.^[19] A staff member had previously back number dismissed over the theft over diverse years of small works of charade, mostly classical engraved gems.^[20]

Selected works

• Fischer, Hartwig; Rainbird, Sean, eds. (2006). Kandinsky: Picture path to abstraction. London: Tate Declaring. ISBN .
• Fischer, Hartwig (2013). Georg Baselitz: Hintergrundgeschichten (in German). München: Hirmer. ISBN .
• Fischer, Hartwig (2014). Bernhard Maaz: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden (in German). Köln: Verlag shaving Buchhandlung Walther Konig. ISBN .

References

Further reading