Hartwig Fischer has announced he will step down as director of the British Museum in 2024.
Since Fischer began his tenure in 2016, he has overseen a major renovation of the building, COVID-19 lockdowns, a week-long workers strike in February this year, the end of BP sponsership after extended campaigner pressure – and has been joined by former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne as the museum’s chair. The much-discussed matter of the Parthenon Marbles – and the museum’s wider approach to repatriation – remains unresolved.
In a statement, Fischer said: ‘In 2016, I was called to the British Museum to prepare the essential renovation of a building in need of rejuvenation, a global icon of museum architecture whose complex architectural substance calls for urgent, large-scale intervention. The renovation work itself will take several decades, but the mission I was given by the Trustees has been accomplished: the foundations of the BM Masterplan are now laid.’
The Museum will beginning looking for a successor later this year.
