After an international search, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has selected its next director and CEO from within its own ranks. Pierre Terjanian, who is presently the museum’s chief of curatorial affairs and conservation, will assume the new role in July.
“I came to the MFA because I was really moved by the institution’s people, collections, commitment to audiences,” he said during an interview. “This is somewhat unexpected development — and a very exciting one.”
In his current position, which he has held since 2024, Terjanian’s responsibilities have included overseeing 175 employees across 17 departments, stewardship of more than 500,000 objects in the collection, acquisitions, capital projects and exhibition programs both at the museum and on tour. As director, he’ll lead the museum’s staff of 543 employees.
Terjanian has 28 years of experience in the museum world under his belt. He’s been a curator of arms and armor at both the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. During the pandemic, Terjanian led the Met’s COVID-19 reopening task force and oversaw safety protocols and planning. He also raised $100 million in artworks, gifts and bequests.
At the MFA, Terjanian will take the reigns from outgoing director Matthew Teitelbaum, who’s set to retire in August.
“It is truly an honor to pass the leadership of this great institution to Pierre — an inspiring colleague who believes strongly in the role of art and museums, and the importance of culture and community,” Teitelbaum said in an announcement. “His dedication to the curatorial field, and across museum functions, is deeply informed by his unwavering commitment to inquiry, strategy, and working with others to address the critical issues facing public institutions today.”
The search committee assembled by the MFA’s board of trustees elected Terjanian unanimously and solidified the hire at a meeting Thursday evening.
“In a search process that began with a survey of our staff, board, and a range of stakeholders, Pierre’s name came up again and again from nearly every corner of the institution and from our community— and it’s no surprise,” board president Emi M. Winterer said. “He quickly earned the trust and respect of his colleagues and has all the intangibles to lead an institution as storied and significant as the MFA.”
Terjanian, 56, grew up in Strasbourg, France. He holds a master’s of management from HEC Paris and he studied history at the University de Metz and University of California, Berkeley. In 2017, Terjanian was a fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership through Columbia Business School.
Throughout his career, Terjanian said he’s been driven to advocate for collections and the hard work done by conservators and his fellow curators. “Projects always require teamwork,” he said. “And as a director, I feel there is even more to be done, which is the ability to advocate for the MFA as a civic institution, as a partner in the community, you know, so much more.”
Terjanian has a unique expertise in objects that span the Stone Age through the Middle Ages and 21st century. In addition to curating arms and armor at the Philadelphia Art Museum, he also headed the department of European sculpture and decorative arts before 1700.
In 2019, Terjanian curated “The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I,” a deeply researched milestone exhibition at the Met that included international loans of 180 objects.
Terjanian has been honored with awards, including the Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History in 2024 granted for identifying and contextualizing historic objects. At the Met, he oversaw the digitization of 16,000 pieces and produced a series of digital essays accessible to international audiences. The French government named Terjanian a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et de Lettres earlier this year for his cultural contributions abroad.
When asked how his rarefied expertise in arms and armor might make itself known at the MFA, he said, “I won’t let my personal taste interfere with what the institution needs most, but there are opportunities out there for the MFA to build some collections. We have great collections that are not fully understood or presented in a way that they could.”
Terjanian pointed to the fact that the MFA has one of the nation’s best collections of Japanese swords. “It’s a very specialized field that shows very high-end accomplishments by craftsmen that worked over centuries, but I’m more excited about the range of historic collections that we have, and the collections we’re building in contemporary art, modern art,” he said.
Terjanian is eager to engage a wide swath of audiences through the MFA’s permanent collection, exhibitions and programming. “I’m really looking forward to what’s possible,” he said.