Taco Dibbits (; born 7 September 1968) is an art historian from Amsterdam, Netherlands and director of the

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Sted ...

Life and work

Dibbits studied art history at the

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

and the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. He first came to the

as a junior staff member in 1995. From 1997 to 2002, he served as director of the Old Master Paintings department at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, t ...

, London. He returned to the Rijksmuseum as curator of 17th-century painting in 2002. As head of the department of Fine and Decorative Arts from 2006 to 2008, he led a team of curators of paintings, sculpture, applied art and Asiatic art at the Rijksmuseum. He was instrumental in many of the museum's acquisitions, including Jan Steen’s remarkable ''Burgomaster of Delft'' and Gerrit Berckheyde's ''View of the Herengracht, Amsterdam'', and was closely involved in the successful Rembrandt-Caravaggio exhibition of 2006 as well as the Late Rembrandt exhibition of 2015. Since 2002 Dibbits has played an important role in developing the layout of the renewed Rijksmuseum. In 2008 he was named Director of Collections, and he succeeded

Wim Pijbes Willem Meint Jans "Wim" Pijbes (born 9 October 1961) is a Dutch art historian and emeritus General Director of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Pijbes' initiatives at the Rijksmuseum include the museum's complete refurbishment and reopening in April ...

as the museum's General Director on 15 July 2016. Taco Dibbits is also a contributing author to the books ''Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists Born Between 1580 and 1600'' (1997), ''Rembrandt - Caravaggio'' (2006), and ''Dutch Paintings of the 17th Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists born between 1570 and 1600'' (2008). He has also published on the drawings of the 16th-century Italian artist Girolamo Muziano.

References

1968 births Living people Dutch art historians Directors of museums in Amsterdam Alumni of the University of Cambridge Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni {{Europe-art-historian-stub