Meet the Staff

Diana Craig Patch specializes in the art and archaeology of ancient Egypt, receiving her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania with a dissertation on settlement patterns and early state development. She curated The Dawn of Egyptian Art (2012), exploring the contributions of Predynastic art to Pharaonic culture, and Cleopatra's Needle (2013–14), celebrating the Central Park icon. In 2017–18, she co-curated Jewelry: The Body Transformed. She also co-curated the reinstallation of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic gallery (2003). Patch teaches and lectures frequently. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Egypt, and directs the Joint Expedition to Malqata (2008–19), the festival-city of Amenhotep III in Thebes.

Niv Allon received his PhD in Egyptology from Yale University in 2014. That same year, he joined the Museum's curatorial staff as a specialist in ancient Egyptian texts and scripts. His scholarship probes the nexus of visual studies and textual analysis by investigating how art, sign, and language interact. More recently, he has focused on representations of violence in text and art, while preparing a publication on the jar labels from the festival-city of Amenhotep III at Malqata.

Dieter Arnold studied Egyptology, classical archaeology, and architecture in Heidelberg and Munich, and took part in excavations at Paestum, Certosa di Padula and Mulva. He worked for 17 years for the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, excavating at Kalabsha, Qasr el-Sagha, Tarif, Asasif, Deir el-Bahari, and at the pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dahshur. From 1979–84, he was head of the Egyptological Seminar of the University of Vienna. He was a curator in The Met's Department of Egyptian Art from 1984–2016, and is now curator emeritus. He has directed the department's excavations at the pyramids of Amenemhat I and Senwosret I and III at Lisht and Dahshur, and has published extensively on Pharaonic archaeology and architecture.

Dorothea Arnold received her PhD from Tübingen University, Germany. In 1963, she moved with her husband, Dieter Arnold, to Egypt where she excavated with the German Archaeological Institute in the Theban Necropolis, the Fayum, and Dahshur. In 1984–1991, she worked for The Met at Lisht. She became an associate curator in the Department in 1985, curator in charge in 1991, and chairman in 2005, retiring in 2012. During her tenure, she initiated new displays in several galleries and renovated the Tombs of Perneb and Raemkai. Among her exhibitions were The Royal Women of Amarna (1996–97) and Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids (1999–2000). Under her leadership, volumes 22–30 of the Museum’s Egyptian Expedition series were published.

As the Department's Senior Photographer, Gustavo Camps is responsible for photographing objects in the Egyptian collection, as well as for designing labels, invitations, and newsletters. A native of Uruguay, Gustavo is a graduate of the Escuela de Arte Pedro Figari. He has worked as a graphic designer for forty years, and also performed professionally as a lyric baritone. During his seven years in Egypt, he was the Art Director at Nahdet Misr Publishing House, did photography and exhibition and graphic design for The American Research Center in Egypt, and taught graphic design and portraiture at the American University in Cairo, where he was instrumental in developing a new graphic design program for the Performing and Visual Arts department.

Sara Chen joined the Department of Egyptian Art in 2012. She provides graphic support to the Department by creating technical drawings for publications, lectures, and gallery displays. She is a member of the Museum's annual excavations at the pyramid complex of Senwosret III at Dahshur, where she draws the finds as the excavation artist. Prior to coming to The Met, Sara worked as a scientific illustrator, an accessories designer, and, at the American Museum of Natural History, a model maker during the Hall of Ocean Life renovation, which opened in 2003. She holds a BA in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University and a MES from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Caroline Foster joined the Department of Egyptian Art in January 2024 as Diana Craig Patch's Research Assistant. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Classical Civilizations from New York University and has a background in archaeology, having worked at sites in Ireland and the Mediterranean. She is responsible for assisting with research and data entry for the Joint Expedition to Malqata and various other projects. 

Elizabeth Fiorentino joined the department in 2011. She is responsible for the overall care of the collection and oversees the Departmental Technicians. She has held collections positions at the Brooklyn Museum as the Collections Manager of the Brooklyn Museum Costume Documentation Project and as a Collections Care Specialist at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She holds a BFA in Sculpture from Alfred University and an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Lucas Galante is an artist with a BA from Bennington College. Before coming to The Met, he worked in several artists' studios where he learned the skills he now employs as a technician in the Department of Egyptian Art. Along with the other technicians, he is responsible for the maintenance of The Met’s collection of Egyptian art.

Maxence Garde joined the department in March 2024 as a part-time Provenance Researcher to assist in researching complex object histories. His main interest is the study of Egyptian art and the crucial role provenance research plays in understanding antiquities collections. He is also the Curator in charge of the Antiquities Collection at the Museum Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal. There he oversees the conservation, research, and display of that collection, and will imagine and curate the future exhibitions. Maxence is not new to The Met as he held a fellowship in 2019 before joining the staff at the British Museum. He recently co-curated an exhibition at the Museo Egizio di Torino about the history of collecting antiquities during the twentieth century.

Brendan Hainline joined the department in October of 2023 as a Research Associate working on an upcoming exhibition. Before joining The Met, Brendan worked as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Chicago, and he has participated in excavations in Egypt at Giza and Tell Edfu. His research focuses on Egyptian language and texts, Old Kingdom religion, and linguistic and cultural contacts between ancient Egypt and its neighbors, and his forthcoming book is a study of linguistic variation in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2020.

Marsha is an art historian and Egyptologist with an MA and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts. She specializes in ancient Egyptian sculpture, with particular interests in metal sculpture and donation practices, art and culture of the first millennium BC, and sculpture from Tell el-Amarna, where she is a member of the field expedition. She curated Gifts for the Gods: Images from Ancient Egyptian Temples in 2007–08, was the lead curator of the 2016 installation of the Ptolemaic Galleries, has worked on many department exhibitions and installations, and has taught frequently. Currently she is working on a book on excavated sculpture from Amarna, and on a collection of studies in metal sculpture.

Janice Kamrin holds a BA from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include Middle Kingdom tomb art, the archaeology of Thebes, and the funerary arts of the first millennium. In the Department, she oversees matters related to The Museum System (TMS) and technology in general. She is a member of the Joint Expedition to Malqata, the festival city of Amenhotep III, and is working on projects related to the archives of The Met’s early 20th Century Egyptian Expedition. Before coming to The Met, Janice directed several projects at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, for the American Research Center in Egypt and worked closely with Zahi Hawass, former head of the antiquities service. She is on the board of the American Research Center in Egypt.

Andrea Kutsenkow joined the Department of Egyptian Art in 2023. She is responsible for establishing physical and intellectual control over the department’s records. Before joining The Met, she worked for the Archival Collections Management Department at New York University, the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs (AFS Archives), the Research and Archives Department at Pace Gallery, and the Leonard A. Lauder Estée Lauder Companies Archives. She also worked for several artists’ studios, estates, and foundations. She holds an MA in Archives and Public History from New York University and an MA in the History of the Art and the Art Market from Christie’s Education, New York. 

Elizabeth Miller joined the Department of Egyptian Art in December 2019. She previously held contract positions in the Department of Drawings and Prints and the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met. Elizabeth manages the Department’s administrative operations and provides support to the Curator in Charge. Her responsibilities include managing the departmental budget and the Friends of Egyptian Art.

Adela Oppenheim received her BA from New York University, MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts with a dissertation on the decorative program of the Senwosret III pyramid temple at Dahshur. She co-directs the Met’s excavations at the Middle Kingdom pyramid complex of Senwosret III (with curator emeritus Dieter Arnold), where her work focuses on the fragmentary relief decoration and sculpture of the king’s temples. Adela has written and lectured extensively on Middle Kingdom art and the results of the Dahshur excavations. She was co-curator of the 2015–16 exhibition “Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom.” Currently she is working on the reliefs and models from the Theban tomb of Meketre.

Amber Orosco joined the Department of Egyptian Art in December 2023 as the Associate for Administration and is working closely with the Collections Management Team on managing events and requests to the department that utilize the galleries and collection. Previously, Amber was a member of the Department of Education at The Met and provided support for The Met Fellowship Program. Amber holds a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Bowdoin College and a MA in the History of Art from Williams College where she was awarded the Clark Prize for her work regarding the dialectics between material and race in early modern decorative arts. 

Catharine H. Roehrig holds a PhD in Egyptian Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, she was the assistant director of the Theban Mapping Project, which led her to develop a keen interest in the architecture of New Kingdom royal tombs, a subject on which she has written extensively. Catharine worked on the exhibition Mummies & Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt (1988) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; at The Met, she has worked on numerous exhibitions and gallery installations; co-curated The Pharaoh's Photographer (2001); and curated Egyptian Art at Eton College: Selections from the Myers Museum (2000) and Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh (2005–06). 

Aude Semat joined the Department in October 2019 and oversees the Second Intermediate Period and early New Kingdom galleries, as well as the Department’s 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 19th 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.

Morena Stefanova received her PhD in ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology from the Bulgarian Academy of Science, where she completed her dissertation on the intercultural contacts in the Eastern Mediterranean during the end of the third millennium BC. She is responsible for book acquisitions and the organization of the Department of Egyptian Art’s research library, and also supports curatorial research and archival projects. Her scholarly interests focus on intercultural exchange and exploring the links between cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, the Aegean, the Near East, and Egypt. She has also excavated sites in Bulgaria, Northern Greece, and Turkey.

Isabel Stünkel is an Egyptologist who holds an MA and PhD from the University of Bonn. Before joining The Met, she was the founding curator of the Egyptian Museum of the University of Bonn. Isabel is a member of The Met's excavation at the pyramid complex of Senwosret III at Dahshur, where she is working on the decoration of the royal women's chapels. Among her research interests are amulets, especially their religious significance and function, and general questions regarding human remains in museum settings. Isabel is Egyptian Art’s departmental liaison with our colleagues in Education.

Jessica Vayo joined the department in 2019 as a departmental technician.  She is responsible for the care and handling of the artwork within the galleries and storerooms. Jessica has a background in archaeology, with degrees from New York University and University College London and fieldwork experience at sites in Egypt, the United Kingdom, and in the tri-state area.

Seth Zimiles is the Supervising Departmental Technician in the Department of Egyptian Art. He has worked as an art technician at The Met for almost eight years. His duties include maintaining the collection and preparing objects for viewing, storage, and installation. When not in the Museum, Seth works as a visual artist. He follows a similar creative process in his art and in his work as a technician, using many different materials to solve visual and structural problems.