Taco Dibbits to take over from Peter Sigmond as Director of Rijksmuseum Collections

Taco Dibbits to take over from Peter Sigmond as Director of Rijksmuseum Collections

Taco Dibbits has been appointed to succeed Peter Sigmond as Director of Amsterdam Rijksmuseum Collections. Sigmond (60) will go into retirement on 31 May. He has worked at the museum since 1995, serving as Director of Collections since 2001. Taco Dibbits (39) came to the Rijksmuseum in 2002 and is currently head of the Department of Fine and Decorative Arts. Wim Pijbes, who becomes the Director General of the Rijksmuseum on 1 July, has responded enthusiastically to the appointment.

Taco Dibbits is an art historian (Amsterdam Free University - VU) and first came to the Rijksmuseum as curator of 17th-century painting in 2002. In recent years, as head of the department of Fine and Decorative Arts, he has led a team of curators of paintings, sculpture, applied art and Asiatic art at the Rijksmuseum. He was instrumental in acquiring Jan Steen’s remarkable Burgomaster of Delft, and was closely involved in the successful Rembrandt- Caravaggio exhibition of 2006. Since he began working at the Rijksmuseum, Dibbits has played an important role in developing the layout of the New Rijksmuseum.