The outgoing head of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm is moving to Hong Kong to shoulder a massive cultural project.

• Philosopher new head of the Modern Museum

Lars Nittve, a renowned Swedish museologist and art critic, will move to Hong Kong and work with a culture and museum project called M+. The project will showcasing contemporary and modern visual culture and is part of the government's massive plan to create an arts district in the Hong Kong's Victoria harbour.

“This is the ultimate assignment”, Lars Nittve said, adding that the project is well planned and already funded. "Hong Kong itself is a fantastic place - one of the few real metropoles, with an exceptional energy and incredible order".

Lars Nittve is to step down as head of the Museum of Modern Art October 31. He has previously been head of Tate Modern in London and director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art north of Copenhagen.

"In the M + project, I feel that everything I have learned over the years, the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Louisiana and also Rooseum can really come in handy. I can make a contribution in a world undergoing rapid change", he said.

The first phase of the museum will be finished in 2015, and the second and final phase will be done in 2031.

In May Sweden's minister for culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth appointed philosopher, critic and curator Daniel Birnbaum as the new head of the Museum of Modern Art, Moderna Museet.

The Museum of Modern Art, that houses Swedish and international modern and contemporary art, is a state museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm. It was first opened in 1958.