Professor Piotr Piotrowski is a new director of the National Museum in Warsaw.

Piotrowski was appointed to the post by the Board of Trustees in February but because of his academic commitments the new director has taken up his duties on 3 August. The Professor told a press conference that his ambition is to make the National Museum a metropolitan museum of a truly European calibre. “This is a highly difficult task, with many problems to be resolved,” he said.

The new director’s first decision was to appoint Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius as his deputy. Murawska-Muthesius has spent many years in Britain, her latest post being that of a scientific consultant at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Piotr Piotrowski is a highly respected specialist in 20th-century art. Piotrowski has held grants for the Columbia University in New York, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts in Washington and the Humboldt University in Berlin. He has worked as a visiting professor in the United States, Israel and Hungary. (mk/mmj)