The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow Has Hired Former Stedelijk Director Beatrix Ruf

Moscow’s Garage Museum of
Contemporary Art has hired Beatrix Ruf, the former
director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. She will not be on
staff, but working in a “senior capacity on strategy and
development,” a representative for the museum said.

Anton Belov, director of the
Garage, said that he will work with Ruf on the
“museum’s long-term development” and that she’ll “contribute her
vision to the exhibition program, planning, education, and
partnership projects at Garage.”

“We started working with Beatrix Ruf a number of years ago, when
she became a member of the Museum’s Advisory Council,” Belov said
in a statement. “It is clear that her vision for the development of
Garage aligns with ours, and expands it. We’re very excited to
bring her on board.”

One of Europe’s most influential
curators, Ruf served as director of the Kunsthalle Zurich from 2001
until 2014, when she was appointed the head of the Stedelijk. In
2017, she was ensnared in controversy when a Dutch newspaper
published a report detailing how the director had simultaneously
operated a private consultancy—netting her $500
million annually—while leading the Amsterdam institution. Two weeks
later, she stepped down from her position.

Ruf maintained that the
incident was a “misunderstanding,” and
that her consultancy had been approved by the Stedelijk board. She
also claimed that the income reported in the newspaper was inflated
due to a bonus she received for work done prior to her job at the
museum. Eight months after her resignation, a private 120-page
report funded by the Municipality of Amsterdam found that
Ruf was “wrongly
accused” of a conflict
of interest. 

Days after the report went
public, three Stedelijk members resigned in an
effort to “end the turmoil” at the institution. Earlier this year, the museum issued a puzzling
press release noting
that it had made amends with the curator, who called her time at
the museum a “happy memory.”

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