On 4 March 2025, the Saxon State Government decided that Dr Bernd Ebert will become Director General of the Dresden State Art Collections from 1 May 2025. His contract runs until 30 June 2033 and he will succeed Prof. Dr Marion Ackermann, who will become President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Image above: Dr Bernd Ebert on 4.3.25 at the Residenzschloss Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, photo: Oliver Killig.
Dr Bernd Ebert returns to Dresden after his previous career stations have optimally prepared him for the task in Saxony’s art collections. He impressed a high-calibre international commission (see below), which unanimously recommended him for this internationally prominent museum position after a multi-stage selection process. Dr Bernd Ebert is moving from a management position at the Bavarian State Painting Collections to the post of Director General of the SKD.
Culture Minister Barbara Klepsch emphasises: “I am delighted that we have once again been able to recruit an outstanding personality for Saxony. In Dr Bernd Ebert, a distinguished and sought-after art historian and museum expert is taking over as the new Director General of our Dresden State Art Collections. He convinced us with his clear ideas on how he intends to lead the internationally renowned museum network into a promising future. With his enthusiasm for the collections and his national and international experience and networks, he is predestined for the position of Director General. We are delighted to hand over responsibility for the successful Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden to him from May 2025.”
Neil McGregor emphasises: “The search committee was fortunate to be able to draw on a strong field of candidates with a wide range of different experiences, and we unanimously chose Dr Bernd Ebert as the outstanding candidate to lead the SKD. He is an outstanding art historian with an international reputation as a scholar. But he is much more than that.
He brings a rare blend of legal, financial and managerial skills; he has direct experience of dealing with the intellectual, practical and political complexities of a large encyclopaedic collection such as the SKD; and he has an impressive track record of exhibitions aimed at attracting new audiences and breaking down the traditional boundaries between art history and other disciplines. What convinced us most is his ambitious vision for the future of the collections as a whole, for what they can mean for Dresden, for Saxony and for the world – and that he has a clear idea of how this vision can become a reality.”
Dr Bernd Ebert says: “It’s great to see how popular the collections and SKD’s diverse programme formats are with the public in Saxony and how deeply connected the population is to its art treasures. My aim is to work with the SKD team not only to intensify research into the diverse collections but also to promote their contemporary presentation. I am also very keen to expand the range of services on offer to a broad public and increase the quality of visits to SKD’s facilities in order to make the overall experience even more attractive. I am looking forward to making the cultural heritage, which is unique in its quality and diversity worldwide, even better known both nationally and internationally and am happy to put myself at the service of Saxony’s passion for art.”
About Dr Bernd Ebert
Dr Bernd Ebert (born 1972 in Berlin) began his career in Dresden with an apprenticeship as a banker at Deutsche Bank AG. He then studied art history, law and business administration in Bonn, while gaining practical work experience at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Newtown Galleries in Johannesburg, the National Gallery of South Africa and the Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town, as well as in renowned private collections and the art trade.
In 2005, Bernd Ebert received his doctorate (summa cum laude) with a thesis on the Dutch Baroque painters Simon and Isaack Luttichuys. As part of his doctorate, he spent several years researching in the Netherlands.
From 2005 to 2013, he worked at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, first as a scientific museum assistant in the Directorate General and Gemäldegalerie and then as a scientific advisor to the Director General. In this role, he coordinated the areas of research and science as well as international cross-collection collaborations, such as the EU Twinning Project with the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi and the exhibition “The Art of the Enlightenment” at the Chinese National Museum in Beijing. In 2011, he was a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.
Since 2013, Bernd Ebert has been Head of the Collection of Dutch and German Baroque Painting at the Bavarian State Painting Collections and is responsible for the State Galleries in Bayreuth and Bamberg.
His special exhibitions include “Circle, Sphere, Cosmos” (Berlin, Schwäbisch Hall, 2006/7), “Utrecht, Caravaggio and Europe” (Utrecht, Munich 2018/19) and “Rachel Ruysch. Nature into Art” (Munich, Toledo and Boston, 2024/25).
Members of the search committee
Franziska Brech,
Head of the Culture and Tourism Division at the SMWK
Petra von Crailsheim,
Chairwoman of the Friends of the SKD
Dr Oliver Kornhoff,
Director of the Museum Reinhard Ernst, Wiesbaden
Dr Wilhelm Krull,
former Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation
Dr Ulrike Lorenz,
President of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar
Neil MacGregor,
former Director of the British Museum and Director of the Humboldt Forum Berlin
Dr Mariët Westermann,
Director and CEO Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York
Dr Marius Winzeler,
Director of the Green Vault and the Armoury at the SKD.
