Hartwig Fischer, ex-director of the British Museum, has been named as the founding director of Saudi Arabia’s new Museum of World Cultures, which will open in Riyadh in 2026. Last year, the German art historian announced plans to leave the British Museum in 2024 but stepped down early, in late August 2023, over the museum’s theft scandal.
Fischer came under scrutiny when it was made public that a member of the museum’s staff had allegedly stolen some 1,500 items from the British Museum’s collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. The Dutch dealer Ittai Gradel came forward as the whistleblower who first alerted Fischer and his deputy director Jonathan Williams to the thefts in early 2021. Though Fischer claimed that he took the allegations “incredibly seriously” and launched an investigation into them, he and Williams concluded that there was no wrongdoing and dismissed Gradel’s warning. The museum became aware of the thefts a year later, in 2022.
Fischer’s eight year tenure at the British Museum is not mentioned in the Saudi Museums Commission’s announcement of his appointment. It noted instead, in more general terms, his decades of experience curating exhibitions and leading cultural institutions and “spearheading innovative initiatives.” Prior to joining the British Museum, Fischer was director general of the Dresden State Art Collections, from 2012 to 2016, and director of the Museum Folkwang in Essen from 2006 to 2012.
The Museum of World Cultures will focus not only on Saudi Arabian cultural heritage but that of all five major continents across the globe. It will fill a new 360-feet high building designed by the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, which will be part of the Royal Arts Complex in Riyadh’s King Salman Park.
The new landmark is part of Saudi Arabia’s wider cultural transformation. Riyadh is also home to events like the annual Noor Riyadh and the Diriyah Biennale, as well as the King Abdullah Financial District, which is still in development.
Western participation in Saudi Arabian cultural projects has often attracted criticism due to the country’s troubling human rights record. Earlier this year, the U.K.’s Science Museum Group (SMG), which oversees five museums including the Science Museum in London, announced a partnership with Saudi Arabia’s ministry of culture that would see it collaborate on new museums in Riyadh. In a statement to Museums Journal, SMG director Ian Blatchford said there is “huge potential to support positive change and reform for people in Saudi Arabia” by growing a strong, sustainable museums sector.
Although Saudi Arabia has invested in bettering its international standing both culturally and financially as part of its Vision 2030 program, launched in 2016, the country still has laws that discriminate against women and prohibit LGBTQ+ relationships. Protests are also illegal and executions are on the rise, according to Amnesty International.
