The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Culture and Science wants to examine the legitimacy of Donatella Fioretti’s election as rector of the Düsseldorf Art Academy. The academy received a letter from the ministry on Wednesday with a questionnaire on the election process. It is said that these are exclusively technical and legal, not personnel issues.
The 60-year-old Italian, who has held a professorship for architecture in Düsseldorf since 2017, was elected shortly before Christmas in a mixed presence and online election by the Academy Senate to succeed the resigned Rector Karl-Heinz Petzinka. Her opponent, the provisional rector and professor of art history, Johannes Myssok, was defeated by seven votes to eight. To justify the hybrid procedure, the art academy referred to the North Rhine-Westphalian Corona University Ordinance. According to the ministry, an exception to online voting is only possible if the pandemic situation requires it. This was no longer the case in December. Donatella Fioretti is said to have been in Africa during the election and was connected to the election from there.
The Ministry of Culture is responsible for the formal appointment of the Academy Rector after the election. If there were procedural errors, the election would have to be repeated. The art academy, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, now has two weeks to respond to the questions.
