Vienna's Museum Leadership Shake-Up: New Directors from Italy and Croatia

The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna will welcome Eike Schmidt as its new artistic director in November 2019, following his departure from the Uffizi Galleries in Florence after one term. The Kunsthalle Wien has already installed the Croatian collective WHW, led by Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić, and Sabina Sabolović. The Vienna Contemporary art fair will appoint Johanna Chromik as its new artistic director for its 2019 edition (September 26–29). Agnes Husslein-Arco, former director of the Belvedere, has been rehabilitated and now leads a new private museum founded by billionaire collector Heidi Horten, set to open in 2022 in a 19th-century building between the Opera House and the Albertina. The Technisches Museum Vienna will gain Peter Aufreiter as director on January 1, 2020; he previously directed the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino and has prior experience in Viennese museums.