RA chief departs for ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’

AXEL RÜGER, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA), is stepping down after being appointed Director of The Frick Collection in New York. 

Rüger joined the RA as Secretary and Chief Executive in 2019 having previously led the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam for over a decade.

His curatorial positions have included London’s National Gallery, where he was responsible for the collection of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Dutch paintings.

“Being part of the leadership team at the Royal Academy has been one of the greatest privileges of my life,” said Rüger. “The past five years at the helm of this great institution have been challenging and immensely rewarding in equal measure. 

“I am sad to leave, but to be asked to become the Director of The Frick Collection in New York is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
 
Rüger will take up his new post in spring 2025 when the collection, housed in a historic Gilded Age property, reopens after a five-year $195m renovation.

REBECCA SALTER, President of the Royal Academy, said: “Axel has been a wonderful colleague, and everyone at the RA owes him so much. 

“His appointment at The Frick Collection is an incredible opportunity for Axel where he will be able to combine his art-historical background with the leadership of an institution that finds itself at a critical moment in its history – the opening after a substantial re-development and expansion of its buildings.”