The current director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, Nicholas Cullinan, has been appointed director of the British Museum, an institution rocked by a scandal with the theft of 2,000 exhibits from its collection announced on Thursday, according to AFP, citing News. .ro.

Nicholas Cullinan welcomes Princess Catherine to the National Portrait GalleryPhoto: David Parry / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia Images

The previous director, Hartwig Fischer, a German national and the museum’s first non-British director, resigned at the end of August 2023 after the theft was revealed. Since then, it has been held temporarily by Mark Jones, former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Nicholas Cullinane, 46, was appointed following unanimous approval from the museum’s trustees and the consent of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. At the helm of the National Portrait Gallery since 2015, Cullinan has led a comprehensive renovation of the collections and museum, which has increased the public space by a fifth, according to his appointment statement.

The art historian was previously a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Tate Modern in London. He will take up his post at the British Museum this summer.

The British Museum is the largest tourist attraction in Great Britain

Nicholas Cullinan welcomed the “honour” of leading “one of the world’s greatest museums”. He spoke of a “new chapter” that would “include the most significant transformations, architectural and intellectual, of any museum in the world to continue to make the British Museum as engaging and collaborative as possible”.

Founded in 1753, the British Museum houses a collection of eight million items, including the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon friezes, acquired during the colonial era and claimed by Greece.

The free-to-enter facility is Britain’s most popular tourist attraction, with 5.8 million visitors in 2023, a 42% increase on the previous year, according to the industry association.

The revelation of a large-scale theft scandal led to the release of an employee who had been detained by the police without any charges at this stage. According to the British Museum, just over 350 objects have been recovered since their discovery.

The new director of the museum will also have to carry out a major renovation, estimated at more than a billion euros, necessary due to the dilapidated state of some galleries.