11 Facts About Hartwig Fischer

Hartwig Fischer was born on 14 December 1962 and is a German art historian and museum director.

Hartwig Fischer undertook postgraduate research on Hermann Prell, for which he received a doctorate degree from the University of Bonn in 1994.

Hartwig Fischer is a German native speaker and fluent in English, French and Italian.

Hartwig Fischer began his career at the Kunstmuseum Basel, an art museum in Basel, Switzerland.

Hartwig Fischer became director of the Museum Folkwang in Essen in 2006 where he presided over a period of expansion.

On 25 September 2015, the trustees of the British Museum announced that Hartwig Fischer would be the museum's next director.

Hartwig Fischer is the first non-British head of the museum since the Italian Sir Anthony Panizzi stood down in 1866.

Hartwig Fischer took up the appointment on 4 May 2016.

In January 2019, Hartwig Fischer gave an interview to a Greek newspaper in which he called the removal of the marbles a "creative act", reaffirmed the British Museum's position of not loaning them to other museums, and stated that they were owned by the museum's trustees, rather than by the people of Athens.

The Greek Minister of Culture and Sports, Myrsini Zorba, said in response that Hartwig Fischer's comments "ignore the international debate and the Declarations of Unesco", while George Vardas, the secretary of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, described Hartwig Fischer's views as "astonishing historical revisionism and arrogance".

In July 2023, Hartwig Fischer announced that he would step down as director in 2024.