British Museum Seeks New Director with $275,000 Salary, Promising ‘Significant Challenges’

The British Museum has officially begun its search for a new director this week.

The job posting for the high-profile permanent position acknowledges “significant challenges,” a nod to the consequences of the theft scandal, low morale among its 1,000 staff, a five-year plan to digitize its entire collection, and renewed calls for the repatriation of objects such as the Benin Bronzes and the Parthenon Marbles.

Hartwig Fischer resigned from the position in August after news that approximately 1,500 items from its collection were missing, stolen, or damaged. A staff member was fired and some of the items were sold on eBay.

Mark Jones, a former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, was named interim leader of the British Museum in September.

The new director will also be tasked with leading fundraising efforts for a significant refurbishment project, which includes infrastructure improvements to the institution’s plumbing, heating system, and leaky roof, as well as a reorganization of its galleries. According to the Financial Times, the project will cost around $1.27 billion (£1 billion).

In October, board chairman George Osborne described the challenges of finding the right person for the prominent position while giving oral evidence to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media, and Sport Committee. The challenges included the museum’s high volume of visitors, negotiations with other countries, the institution’s functions as a research institution and a library, its ongoing interpretations of Britain’s history of colonization, and commanding the respect of the academic community.

“It is a very, very complicated job, so finding the right person is something we take very seriously,” Osborne said on October 18 last year.

Osborne said he was confident the museum would receive good candidates for the director role, but the institution would need to consider an “interesting balance” of academic scholarship and the individual’s experience of “managing large, complex organisations in the public sector.”

He also acknowledged museum directors are paid significantly less in Britain compared to the United States. “It is a different culture here, and also a different culture from on the continent of Europe.”

The position’s pay is listed at approximately $275,000 (£215,841), a small fraction compared to the $1 million base salary the Metropolitan Museum of Art gives director Max Hollein each year, according to tax filings. Several museum directors in the US, including the Museum of Modern Art, also get the benefit of tax-free luxury housing or housing allowances on top of their salaries.

The New York Times reported that serious contenders for the director position include Ian Blatchford, the director of the Science Museum in London; Nicholas Cullinan, the leader of Britain’s National Portrait Gallery and who recently oversaw a three-year, $53 million renovation; and Taco Dibbits, the director-general of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which last year mounted a blockbuster Vermeer retrospective.