Less than three weeks after overseeing the opening of Museum Voorlinden, Wim Pijbes is stepping down as its general director.
The Netherlands’ newest private museum, which houses the modern and contemporary art collection of the chemicals magnate Joop van Caldenborgh, opened to the public in Wassenaar, north of The Hague, on 11 September. Pijbes surprised many when he joined as director in July after eight years at the helm of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where he had led the completion of an acclaimed ten-year, €375m renovation in 2013.
In an interview with The Art Newspaper before Museum Voorlinden opened, Pijbes said he had “found that a kind of cycle was fulfilled” at the Rijksmuseum and that leading a “startup” museum seemed like “a dream job”.
From 1 October, Pijbes will be replaced by Suzanne Swarts, the museum’s artistic director and van Caldenborgh’s long-standing chief curator, according to a brief statement from the museum. Pijbes will remain involved at the museum as a consultant and member of the board, on which he had served before becoming director. He will also focus on new projects, the statement said.
“Both Joop and I agree that life is full of surprises,” Pijbes told The Art Newspaper in an email.