ANTWERP.- Manfred Sellink will succeed Paul Huvenne as the new General Director and Head Curator of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. He is currently General Director of the Bruges Museums (Musea Brugge).

The Dutchman Manfred Sellink (born 1962) was elected after an extensive recruitment procedure. Sellink holds a PhD in Art History (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). His dissertation focused on the engraver and print publisher Philips Galle (1537-1612). Sellink is widely renowned as a specialist in several art historical issues such as the life and work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, prints and drawings in the Low Countries in the second half of the 16th Century, and landscapes in the 16th Century in the Low Countries.

Manfred Sellink also is a professor at the University of Ghent. On many occasions, Sellink was invited to speak at universities and conferences worldwide. He is a member of national and international network organizations (such as Codart) and facilitating organizations.

Sellink will join the team of the KMSKA as soon as possible.

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) conserves about 7600 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints. Major ensembles by the Flemish Primitives, Peter Paul Rubens and the Baroque, Henri De Braekeleer and the Flemish expressionists characterise the institution. The museum has the most important Ensor collection in the world and the largest collection of works by Rik Wouters.

In addition to works of art from the Southern Netherlands and Belgium, it also houses a number of remarkable top works from abroad, including paintings by Jean Fouquet, Titian and Amedeo Modigliani and sculptures by Ossip Zadkine and Auguste Rodin.