News — Oct 23, 2017

Amsterdam, 20 October 2017 – On 17 October 2017, the Supervisory Board of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam announced that an external, independent Governance expert will conduct an investigation into all aspects of the process that was followed at the time between the former Supervisory Board and the director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam who was appointed in 2014. The review will also examine the accompanying monitoring mechanisms. The expert will report his findings and make any necessary recommendations concerning improvements to the governance process.

Prompted by the debate that has arisen concerning (1) a lack of transparency regarding the activities of Beatrix Ruf in addition to her job as (former) director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and (2) the way in which any semblance of a conflict of interests was handled, the external expert is tasked with determining whether the process was carried out in compliance with the rules and principles of the Cultural Governance Code and the Code of Ethics, in line with the practices endorsed by the Dutch museum sector.

The Supervisory Board has requested Professor S.E. Eisma, appointed Professor by special appointment in Stocks, Markets and Regulation at the Faculty of Law at the University of Amsterdam, to conduct the review. Professor S.E. Eisma has agreed to the request.

The objective is to complete the review by the end of 2017. The same deadline applies to the second investigation – an evaluation to assess whether the museum acted in accordance with the Dutch Executives’ Pay Standards Act [Wet Normering Topinkomens]. Tom Barkhuysen, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University, has been asked to carry out the second review. 

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam will publish the findings of both reports in due course.

NOTE TO EDITORS

For more informationa please contact the Press Office of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Udo Feitsma, +31-(0)-20 - 573 26 60 / +31-(0)-6 50 61 66 88, pressoffice@stedelijk.nl.