Hartwig Fischer (born 14 December 1962) is a Germanart historian andmuseum director. From April 2016 until his resignation in August 2023 following a theft scandal, he was thedirector of theBritish Museum, the first non-British head of the museum since 1866. From 2012 to 2016, he was director of theDresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden).
On 25 September 2015, the trustees of theBritish Museum announced that Fischer would be the museum's nextdirector.[9][10] He is the first non-British head of the museum since the ItalianSir Anthony Panizzi stood down in 1866.[11] He took up the appointment on 4 May 2016.[1][12]
In his role as director, Fischer supported the museum's continued ownership of theElgin Marbles, which were removed from theAcropolis in Athens by agents ofLord Elgin from 1799 to 1810.[13] In January 2019, Fischer gave an interview to a Greek newspaper (in English) 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.[14] The Greek Minister of Culture and Sports,Myrsini Zorba, said in response that Fischer's comments "ignore the international debate and the Declarations of Unesco",[15] while George Vardas, the secretary of theInternational Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, described Fischer's views as "astonishinghistorical revisionism and arrogance".[14] In December 2022, it was reported in the British press that the British Museum had entered into talks with the Greek government for the permanent return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens.[16][17]
In July 2023, Fischer announced that he would step down as director in 2024.[18] In August 2023, he resigned due tothe museum's response to thefts and announced that he would step down once the museum had set up an interim director.[19] A staff member had previously been dismissed over the theft over several years of small works of art, mostly classicalengraved gems.[20]
Fischer, Hartwig; Rainbird, Sean, eds. (2006).Kandinsky: The path to abstraction. London: Tate Publishing.ISBN978-1854376770.
Fischer, Hartwig (2013).Georg Baselitz: Hintergrundgeschichten (in German). München: Hirmer.ISBN978-3777421667.
Fischer, Hartwig (2014).Bernhard Maaz: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden (in German). Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig.ISBN978-3863356125.
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