Gary Vikan, Ph.D.

Gary Vikan was Director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore from 1994 to 2013; from 1985 to 1994, he was the museum’s Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Medieval Art. Before coming to Baltimore, Vikan was Senior Associate at Harvard’s Center for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. A native of Minnesota, he received his B.A. from Carleton College and his Ph.D. from Princeton University; he is a graduate of the Harvard Program for Art Museum Directors and the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program.

Vikan serves on the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts of the Salzburg Global Seminar. In retirement, Vikan writes, lectures, and teaches. His books include From the Holy Land to Graceland (2012), Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director (SelectBooks, September 2016), The Holy Shroud: A Brilliant Hoax in the Time of the Black Death, (2020), My Father Took Pictures (2021), and, with Elana Klausner Vikan, Postcards from Behind the Iron Curtain (2023).