Presenting Our Network of French Curators in American Museums

Thomas Busciglio-Ritter has been Associate Curator of American Art at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, since January 2025. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris and the École du Louvre, he earned his PhD in art history from the University of Delaware in 2022.

He first joined the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, where he served as Assistant Curator of Art of the American West from 2022 to 2025. At the Joslyn, he led a complete reinstallation of the American collections and is currently preparing a similar reinstallation at the Milwaukee Art Museum, scheduled for completion in 2029. His area of expertise and research interests include nineteenth-century American art, landscape painting, transatlantic exchanges, as well as racial and environmental issues in the visual arts of the United States. 

Sylvain Cordier, PhD in art history from Paris-Sorbonne University, is the Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond, Virginia.

Originally a specialist in Neoclassical decorative arts, he has expanded his field of interest and expertise over the course of his career to focus on the dialogue between decorative arts, painting, and sculpture; the relationship between artistic production and discourses of power in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and the art of portraiture in pre-contemporary Europe. Before joining the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Sylvain Cordier held various positions in Europe and North America, including at the Palace of Versailles, the Mobilier national, Paris-Sorbonne University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Getty Research Institute.

From 2013 to 2019, he served as Curator of Early Decorative Arts at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where he notably curated a major international exhibition devoted to the Emperor’s Household under Napoleon. At the VMFA since 2019, he has overseen the reinstallation of the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and British and American Sporting Art collections bequeathed by Paul and Bunny Mellon, as well as the installation of the major Old Master collection of Tom and Jordan Saunders.

He is currently preparing a major retrospective exhibition and a book on the work and career of the Franco-American jeweler Jean Schlumberger, as well as a comprehensive reinstallation project of the European art galleries planned for 2028–29. 

Dr. Marie-Stéphanie Delamaire is Curator of European and American Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, where she co-leads the reinstallation project of the museum’s permanent galleries (scheduled to open in 2027). She holds degrees in museology and postgraduate studies from the École du Louvre, as well as a PhD in art history from Columbia University in New York. 

Delamaire is a specialist of the Atlantic world from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Among her recent exhibitions, « Fault Lines: Art, Imperialism, and the Atlantic World » was organized at the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2025. She is currently preparing the first retrospective devoted to the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Maria van Oosterwijck, which will open at the Carnegie Museum of Art in fall 2028. 

Senior Curator and Head of the Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Anne-Lise Desmas specializes in European sculpture before 1900, with a focus on France and Italy. She holds a Diplôme de Recherche from the École du Louvre and a Ph.D. in art history from Paris IV-Sorbonne Université (see her book Le ciseau et la tiare, 2013) and is a former pensionnaire of the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici. 

Desmas joined the Getty Museum in 2008 and has contributed to numerous exhibitions and catalogues, including Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture (2008), Bouchardon: Royal Artist of the Enlightenment (2016), An Enduring Icon: Notre-Dame Cathedral (2019), Camille Claudel (2023–24), and Paul Troubetzkoy Sculptor (2025–26). Currently, she is preparing the catalogue raisonné of the Getty Museum’s French sculpture collection and planning the redisplay of the permanent galleries. 

Anne Dunn-Vaturi earned an MA in Art History, Archaeology, and Museum Studies from the École du Louvre, and an MA in Archaeology from the Sorbonne University, Paris. She is Senior Provenance Researcher in the Department of Ancient West Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Before joining The Met in 2009, she worked at the Musée du Louvre as Chargée d’études documentaires for an audit of long-term archaeological loans to other museums and for the Mattéoli Mission, a task force researching looted art during the Nazi era.

Her latest research about the looting of antiquities by the ERR was published in a co-authored article “Sur les traces de Gudea: recherches de provenance d’antiquités néo-sumériennes dans la base de données des objets d’art du Jeu de Paume” in a volume in honor of Béatrice André-Salvini (Archaeopress, 2025). Anne is also a specialist in ancient games and a member of the editorial board of Board Game Studies Journal. 

Natalie Dupêcher is the Associate Curator of Modern Art at the Menil Collection in Houston. Her recent exhibitions include Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight (2025-26); Janet Sobel: All-Over (2024); and Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition, which was co-organized by the Menil Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Kunstmuseum Bern. In addition to curating temporary shows, she oversees the museum’s permanent collection galleries devoted to Surrealism. 

She holds a PhD from Princeton University and an MA from the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. At Princeton, her dissertation research was supported by a Hyde Academic-Year Fellowship, the Getty Research Institute, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). 

Clarisse Fava-Piz is Curator of Modern Art at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. She was previously Associate Curator of European and American Art before 1900 at the Denver Art Museum, where she co-curated The Honest Eye: Camille Pissarro’s Impressionism (2025-26) in collaboration with the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. In 2023, she curated In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art for the Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas, in partnership with the Fundación Juan March, Madrid. Past cultural institutions where she worked include the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), Paris; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Fava-Piz holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and is a specialist of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sculpture in Europe and the Americas.

She recently contributed essays to the exhibition catalogue Camille Claudel (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2023). Her research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Casa de Velázquez, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.   

Dr. Anabelle Gambert-Jouan serves as the Lillian and James H. Clark Assistant Curator of European Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. In 2024, she was named a U.S. Laureate of the Villa Albertine’s Museums Next Generation program. Her previous experience includes curatorial and research roles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery. She earned her Ph.D. from Yale University, her M.St. from the University of Oxford, and her B.A. from the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

Cécile Godefroy joined the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in November 2025 as the new Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Painting and Sculpture. She formerly served as Deputy Director for Scientific and Collections and Head of Research and Archives at the Musée national Picasso-Paris, where she oversaw the newly inaugurated Centre d’Études Picasso.

An art historian, with a PhD specialized in the historical avant-garde and transdisciplinary approaches to art, Cecile Godefroy’s curatorial work includes exhibitions highlighting pioneering women artists, from Sonia Delaunay to Marcelle Cahn, and original thematic exhibitions dedicated to Pablo Picasso.

Diana Seave Greenwald is an art historian and economic historian, who is currently William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. An expert in nineteenth-century American and French art, she has curated eight exhibitions during her tenure at the Gardner and edited four exhibition catalogs. She is also the co-author (with Nathaniel Silver)of Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life(2022).Prior to joining the Gardner, she was an Andrew W.Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

In addition to being a curator, her academic research uses both statistical and qualitative analyses to explore the relationship between art and broader social and economic change during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her book, Painting by Numbers: Data-Driven Histories of Nineteenth Century Art, was published by Princeton University Press in 2021.Shereceived a D.Phil. in History from the University of Oxford. Before doctoral study, Diana earned an M.Phil. in Economic and Social History from Oxford and received a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from Columbia University.  

Severine J. Imbert de Smirnoff is a mission-driven executive with deep expertise in science engagement, strategic planning, and institutional transformation. As Chief of Strategic Initiatives and Chief of Staff, she serves as the primary advisor to the President, leading major initiatives that expand access to science and technology. She initially spearheaded the Museum’s digital transformation and established the Centers for Public Science Learning to connect the public with cutting-edge research in life sciences, environmental science, and space exploration. Severine has worked for 20 years at the Museum, and she was a volunteer at the Museum before joining its team.

A proven leader in governance and operations, Severine has successfully managed the Board of Trustees, strengthened institutional alignment, and overseen large-scale initiatives, including the development, operations and programming of the Public Science Common, a 10,000-square-foot convening space. She believes that STEM is essential to solving humanity’s greatest challenges and is committed to making science accessible, relevant, and inspiring for all. Severine holds Mechanical Engineering degrees from EPF Engineering School (France) and the University of Maine and is actively involved in STEM advocacy. 

Guillaume Kientz is the Director and CEO of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library (HSM&L) in New York, where he is currently leading a major restoration and renovation initiative. A celebrated art historian and curator, Kientz is an expert in Spanish painting (El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Goya) and European Caravaggism. His curatorial approach is distinguished by a strong focus on the visitor experience, built on extensive travel and academic background in Political Science and Art History. 

His career highlights include eight years as a Curator at the Musée du Louvre, specializing in Hispanic and Latin American art, and serving as Curator of European Art at the Kimbell Art Museum. Kientz is widely recognized for developing and co-curating landmark exhibitions, notably Velázquez (Grand Palais, 2015) and the comprehensive El Greco retrospective (2019). A regular contributor to major art publications, he is also a recipient of honors such as the Daniel Arasse Fellowship from Villa Medici. 

Marc Maillot (PhD in Egyptology, Sorbonne University, 2013) is an associate member of the Orient et Méditerranée unit of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Before his appointment in 2015 as a courtesy assistant professor at the University of Central Florida, he conducted seminars on Late Antiquity urbanism and architecture at Sorbonne University in Paris and Shendi University in Sudan. His research interests include vernacular architecture in both Egypt and Sudan, Meroitic iconography, social anthropology, and urbanism in antiquity. He has worked at archaeological sites since 2007, with a special focus on Middle Nile Valley sites such as Muweis, el-Hassa, Damboya, and Sai Island. His field experience also includes the archaeology of Roman settlements in France, particularly on the shores of the Marne River.

His past research has focused on technical approaches to the study of cultural transmission, and more specifically on the theme of casemate foundations for monumental brick structures along the Nile. His current research focuses on the Osirian cult practice in Meroitic royal pageantry, architectural representations in the iconography of the Middle Nile Valley, and late antique Sudanese towns as production machines for a centralized power at Meroe. He was appointed director and chief curator of the ISAC Museum in January 2023. 

Simon Rettig is the Associate Curator for the Arts of the Islamic World at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC. He received his BA from the École du Louvre in Paris and his MA and Doctorate from Aix-Marseille University, France. Rettig curated many exhibitions, including Nasta‘liq: The Genius of Persian Calligraphy (2014), The Prince and the Shah: Royal Portraits from Qajar Iran (2018), and An Epic of Kings: The Great Mongol Shahnama (2024).

He was the co-curator with Massumeh Farhad of The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (2016) and 2020, he served as the in-house curator in charge Age Old Cities: A Virtual Journey from Palmyra to Mosul, coming from the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. His forthcoming exhibition is From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art (opening September 2026). A specialist of the Islamic arts of the book, with a special focus on Iran and Turkey, Rettig has lectured and published extensively. His latest work is the virtual project entitled Beyond Rumi: Sufi Art and Practice. 

Aude Semat joined the Department of Egyptian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in October 2019 and oversees the Second Intermediate Period and early New Kingdom galleries, as well as the Department’s Theban archaeological archives. Aude studied art history and Egyptology at the École du Louvre and the Sorbonne, receiving her PhD in Egyptology in 2017. She has taken part in exhibitions and cataloguing projects in museums in France and the US, and taught at the École du Louvre until 2018.

Her research focuses on tomb architecture and painting, landscape, and gardens, as well as the history of collecting and museums in the nineteenth century. Aude is currently preparing a book on architectural painting and landscape in ancient Egyptian art, and studying the collection of the first Egyptian museum in Russia. 

Pierre Terjanian is the Ann and Graham Gund Director and CEO of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a role he assumed in July 2025. He previously served as the MFA’s Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Conservation. With 28 years of experience in major U.S. museums, he has held senior curatorial positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art prior to joining the MFA.

From 2012 to 2022, he was Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Curator in Charge of Arms and Armor at The Met, where he curated major exhibitions, including The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I. Born in Strasbourg, France, Terjanian holds degrees in law, management, and history from Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas, HEC Paris, and Université de Metz. He has been recognized with several distinctions, including the Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History and the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et de Lettres. 

Christine Vendredi is an art historian and museum professional who has served as Chief Curator of the Palm Springs Art Museum since April 2024, where she oversees exhibitions, publications, and the permanent collection. She was appointed JoAnn McGrath Executive Director of the same museum in October 2025. She previously spent twelve years at Louis Vuitton, most recently as Global Director for Art, Culture, and Heritage. In that role, she supervised international art commissions, programming, and brand content for traveling exhibitions in cities including Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Milan, and Los Angeles, and played a key role in aligning the company’s art initiatives with the launch of its foundation in Paris.

She also managed and expanded the Louis Vuitton corporate art collection, displayed across 475 stores worldwide. Vendredi holds a PhD in Art History from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE)–Sorbonne in Paris, a PhD in Architectural History from Charles University in Prague, and an Executive MBA from HEC Paris. She has co-authored two books on architecture, taught art history at Keio University in Tokyo, and speaks French, English, Japanese, and Czech. 

Pauline Vermare is the Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum. She was formerly the cultural director of Magnum Photos in New York, and a curator at the International Center of Photography (ICP). She previously worked at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, in Paris.  She sits on the boards of the Saul Leiter Foundation and the Catherine Leroy Fund. 

Dr. Wilfried Zeisler is Hillwood’s deputy director and chief curator. He is a graduate of Sorbonne University and the Ecole du Louvre, Paris. Wilfried has written extensively on French and Russian decorative arts, collections, and history of fashion including several articles and contributions to books. Wilfried’s dissertation, L’Objet d’art et de luxe français en Russie (1881-1917) [French Objets d’art and Luxury Goods in Russia], was published in Paris in 2014.

Since 2009, he has participated in and curated exhibitions in Paris, Monaco, and Washington DC. At Hillwood, his most recent exhibitions include Fabergé Rediscovered (2018), Bouke de Vries: War and Pieces (2019), Natural Beauties: Exquisite Works of Minerals and Gems (2020), The Porcelain Flowers of Vladimir Kanevsky (2021), Determined Women: Collectors, Artists, and Designers at Hillwood (2023), Glass: Art. Beauty. Design. (2023), Fragile Beauty: Art of the Ocean (2024), From Exile to Avant-Garde: The Life of Princess Natalie Paley (2025) (co-curated with Megan Martinelli), and On Time: Giving Form to the Fleeting (2026). Wilfried co-authored Konstantin Makovsky: The Tsar’s Painter in America and Paris (2015), and The Houses and Collections of Marjorie Merriweather Post – The Joy of It (2022). He is the author of Fabergé Rediscovered (2018), Les Youssoupoff – Un siècle de collections françaises (2023) and The Belle Epoque Life in Paris: Olga Paley and Paul of Russia (2025 — first published in French in 2018).