New Director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle

Prof. Dr. Christoph Martin Vogtherr became the new Director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle on 1 October 2016.

»The Hamburger Kunsthalle is one of the most prominent art museums in Germany. With its impressive and inspiring tradition in art-historical work and art education, it has consistently succeeded in shaping and challenging the international museum world. Together with the museum staff, I want to contribute to further developing the artistic and social relevance of the Kunsthalle.

At the museum, we see the world through the eyes of other people and other times. In their beauty and strangeness, works of art can touch us, change us and open up new perspectives. The vital power of images helps us in the world we live in; understanding creativity benefits our lives. I much look forward to the new Hamburger Kunsthalle. It is a place with a friendly atmosphere, open to the city and Europe that invites exchange: a place of encounter – with the visual arts at its center.«

Dr. Christoph Martin Vogtherr was born in Uelzen in 1965 and studied Art History, Medieval History and Classical Archaeology in Berlin, Heidelberg and Cambridge. In 1996 he received his Ph.D. from the Freie Universität Berlin with a thesis on The Early History of the Berlin State Museums between 1797 and 1835. Prior to assuming his new responsibilities at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, he worked for the Wallace Collection, initially as Curator, then as Head of Collections and finally as Director (2008 to 2011). Before this, from 1997 to 2007, he was Custodian of French and Italian Paintings at the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten (Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens) in Potsdam. From 2003 to 2007 he led an interdisciplinary research project of the Getty Foundation, and since 2014 is a  member of the scientific council of the Institut national d’histoire de l’art in Paris.