Pope Francis names first female to head Vatican Museums

THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Rachel Donadio

The Italian art historian Barbara Jatta. Credit Musei Vaticani / Handout/European Pressphoto Agency

VATICAN CITY---Pope Francis has chosen Barbara Jatta as the first woman to direct the Vatican Museums. Currently the museums’ deputy director, Dr. Jatta, 54, will take over on Jan. 1, 2017, becoming the highest-ranking female administrator in the Vatican, where most senior positions are reserved for cardinals and bishops. The Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel, are among the most popular in the world. A professor of history of graphic arts at the University of Naples, Dr. Jatta has been at the Vatican since 1996, as curator of graphics in the prints department and the head of the Cabinet of Prints in the Vatican Apostolic Library. [link]