Hartwig Fischer will head the new Royal Arts Complex museum in 2026. The 500,000 m2 cultural complex that will house the Museum of World Cultures is located in a huge 16 km2 park in King Salman Park in Riyadh. Hartwig Fischer, an art historian and doctor of philosophy, has extensive experience in curating and directing museums internationally. He was curator of the 19th century collections at the Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland), director of the Folwang Museum in Essen (2006-2011) and director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2011-2016). He headed the British Museum (London) from 2016 to 2023 before resigning in August 2023 following the scandal of the theft of more than 2,000 objects from the collection, sold off on eBay for more than a year by a person suspected of being a member of the museum’s staff.
The Royal Arts Complex, designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, will include a theatre, an open-air amphitheatre, artists’ studios and cinemas, a sculpture and art pavilion and a library (50,000 books specialising in arts and culture). From the top of a 110m high golden pyramidal construction which will house the museum’s collections, the cultural complex extends over several buildings combining traditional and modern Saudi architecture.
The future Saudi museum will exhibit the cultural heritage of the Arabian Peninsula, but not only that. “The museum will showcase the cultures that emerged and developed over time from Africa to Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas.” The Saudi Museums Commission said the collections of the Museum of World Cultures will be divided into three departments: traditional visual arts, cultural heritage and restoration, and the theater arts department.
The new museum is part of the “Vision 2030” plan, a colossal economic and cultural development project initiated by the Saudi government with a budget of 80 billion euros. This plan aims to reduce the country’s economic dependence on oil production.
