Getty Appoints Verena Lepper to Senior Curator of Antiquities

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced today the appointment of Verena Lepper to the position of Anissa and Paul John Balson II Senior Curator of Antiquities.

Lepper will lead the museum’s department of antiquities, which comprises a collection of over 1,300 antiquities on view, and will also play a key role in the organization, planning, and execution of special exhibitions and programming at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades.

Lepper joins the Getty from the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of the National Museums in Berlin, Germany, where since 2008 she has served as curator, overseeing 30,000 Egyptian and Near Eastern artifacts. She has led and curated major international exhibitions and research projects in Germany and abroad, including Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Harvard University. She currently serves also as the director of the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic Religion at Humboldt University in Berlin. To advance cultural diplomacy between Germany and the Arab world, she founded the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), which she has led since 2013. She also serves on several committees and supervisory boards focused on cultural and science policy.

“Dr. Lepper brings a wealth of knowledge and experience on the arts, material culture, languages, and religions of the ancient world from the Mediterranean to the Near and Middle East,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Her success in engaging audiences of all backgrounds through exhibitions, publications and educational programs will greatly enhance the Getty Villa’s impact on audiences around the world.”

Lepper has published 20 books on Egyptian and Oriental papyri, language and religion, as well as literary and cultural history, and the history of science and the arts. She received many international awards by different institutions, including the World Economic Forum, “Germany – Land of Ideas” and the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology in Egypt. One of her most recent multidisciplinary research projects focused on the cultural history of the island of Elephantine, located on the Nile River in southern Egypt. This project was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and included objects from 60 collections in 24 different countries from all over the world, resulting in a major 2024 exhibition on Berlin’s Museum Island, titled Elephantine: Island of the Millennia. The exhibition showcased the relevance of 4,000 years of cultural history across twenty different ancient ethnic groups, including contemporary art.

"I am immensely honored to join the Getty Museum and to collaborate closely with renowned colleagues across art, programming, and conservation. It is a thrill to work at the Getty Villa, a truly unique place with the combination of its world-class antiquities, architecture modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, and exquisite gardens,” says Lepper. “With an exceptional team, I hope to promote the awareness of the relevance of the past and to encourage an accepting view of different cultures in the present and for the future."