The museum's supervisory board announced the appointment on Wednesday. Rosenthal currently serves as director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, where she oversees the artistic direction and opening program of the museum, which is set to open on December 11.
From 2018 to 2022, Rosenthal was director of the Gropius Bau in Berlin. During her tenure, the exhibition house staged major solo shows by Yayoi Kusama, Lee Bul, and Wu Tsang, among others. Before that, she spent a decade as chief curator at London's Hayward Gallery, from 2007 to 2017. In 2016, she served as artistic director of the Biennale of Sydney.
In her new role, Rosenthal will help shape the artistic future of the museum and of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. The museum's main building has been closed for renovation and conversion since 2019 and is slated to reopen in 2030. In the meantime, its collection of more than 157,000 works is on view in venues including the Depot, which opened in 2021.
"Using periods of transition to break new ground"
"I have always been inspired by institutions that use periods of transition to break new ground and to rethink the role of the museum in the 21st century," Rosenthal said in the statement. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is exactly such an institution, she added. She looks forward to forging new connections between eras and artistic practices, and to developing the museum's relationship with Rotterdam, a port city shaped by cultural exchange and diversity.
Rosenthal succeeds Ina Klaassen, who had been the museum's general director since 2022 and recently stepped down due to illness. Sandra Kisters, director of collection and research, is currently leading the museum on an interim basis and will remain in that role until Rosenthal takes up her post in spring 2027.
Rosenthal also sits on the board of the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CiMAM) and is a visiting professor at NYU Abu Dhabi.