The British Museum on Thursday announced the appointment of Nicholas Cullinan as its new director, succeeding Hartwig Fischer, who stepped down following a series of thefts there.
Cullinan, 46, moves to the museum in the coming months from the National Portrait Gallery, where he has been director since April 2015.
The art historian, who was previously a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and London’s Tate Modern described it as “an honour” to lead “one of the greatest museums in the world”.
Fischer stepped down in August last year, shortly after it was revealed that thousands of artefacts from its collection were found to be “missing, stolen or damaged”.
The museum, which is in line for major redevelopment, has been run in the meantime by interim director Mark Jones.
Museum chairman George Osborne said Cullinan was chosen because he had shown “proven leadership” and oversaw the well-received recent renovation of the National Portrait Gallery.
The British Museum was founded in 1753 and is one of the most famous in the world, with a collection of about eight million objects.
But like many Western museums, it has come under pressure in recent years to address calls to return items acquired during the era of the British Empire, not least the Parthenon, or Elgin, Marbles.
Last year’s revelations about missing, stolen and damaged items has led to a police investigation and the dismissal of one staff member.
