Hartwig Fischer (born 14 December 1962) is a German art historian and museum director.

As a child, Fischer glimpsed art galleries while visiting relatives farther to the south, in Dresden in then-separate East Germany.

[9][10] He is the first non-British head of the museum since the Italian Sir Anthony Panizzi stood down in 1866.

[14] The Greek Minister of Culture and Sports, Myrsini Zorba, said in response that Fischer's comments "ignore the international debate and the Declarations of Unesco",[15] while George Vardas, the secretary of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, described Fischer's views as "astonishing historical revisionism and arrogance".

[19] A staff member had previously been dismissed over the theft over several years of small works of art, mostly classical engraved gems.