Suzanne Landau will step down as director of the Israel Museum, the establishment confirmed this week to Israeli information outlet Haaretz, departing the function earlier than a everlasting successor is formally introduced. Landau, 80, knowledgeable workers of her determination on the museum’s end-of-year occasion final week. She has served as director since September 2023.
The museum mentioned the seek for a brand new CEO is in “superior phases” and that Landau will accompany the incoming director throughout a transition interval, the size of which has but to be decided. An official announcement will probably be made as soon as the choice course of is full, in response to the museum.
Landau was appointed performing director in September 2023, one month after Denis Weil resigned following disagreements with the museum’s board. Board chairman Isaac Molho, who has held the place since 2000, requested Landau to imagine the function to make sure managerial continuity and protect donor relationships. Though initially designated performing director, Landau’s title was later modified to everlasting director. Her appointment was made with no formal tender course of.
Throughout Landau’s tenure, the museum’s board held negotiations with a number of potential candidates for the CEO function, although no appointment was finalized. Six months in the past, Dganit Sanker-Lange was appointed deputy director, restoring a administration construction that had been revised underneath Landau’s management.
Born in 1946, Landau is likely one of the most influential figures in Israel’s museum world. She labored on the Israel Museum from 1978 for greater than three a long time, in the end serving as chief curator of advantageous arts and founding its Division of Modern Artwork. She later directed the Tel Aviv Museum of Artwork till 2019 and co-founded the Nassima-Landau gallery in Tel Aviv in 2020.
Her most up-to-date undertaking on the Israel Museum was the set up Ages of the World by German artist Anselm Kiefer, unveiled to the general public in December.
The Israel Museum has skilled frequent management turnover over the previous decade, together with the brief tenure of Weil, who had been appointed director in 2021 and resigned after roughly 18 months . In 2025, the museum’s common supervisor, Eva Madjiboj-Levy, additionally resigned lower than two years into the function.
