The art historian Antonio Paolucci, minister for cultural heritage in the Dini government, former superintendent of the Florentine Museum Complex and director of the Vatican Museums, has died in Florence at the age of 84. Born in Rimini on 29 September 1939, Paolucci graduated in art history in 1964 with Roberto Longhi, starting his career in the State Administration as an official of the Ministry of Public Education (which until 1975 held the responsibilities later devolved to the Ministry of Culture) in 1969, approaching the world of superintendencies. Since 1980 Paolucci has held the role of superintendent first in Venice, then in Verona, Mantua and finally in Florence, where he was superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and then moved to the Superintendence of Artistic and Historical Heritage (which later became the Special Superintendency for the Florentine Museum Complex) and was also appointed Regional Director for the Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Tuscany until he was retired due to reaching the age limit in 2006. From January 1995 to May 1996 he held the position of Minister for cultural and environmental assets during the government presided over by Lamberto Dini. After the earthquake that hit Umbria and the Marche in 1997 he was appointed extraordinary government commissioner for the restoration of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.
In November 2007 he was appointed director of the Vatican Museums by Pope Benedict XVI, remaining in office until July 2016, when Pope Francis chose his successor, Barbara Jatta, who took office on 1 January 2017, who worked alongside him in the previous six months. as deputy director. In 2018 he was appointed president of the Steering Committee for the international design competition preparatory to the reconstruction of the Basilica of San Benedetto da Norcia seriously damaged by the earthquake in central Italy in 2016. For the merits achieved in the context of his cultural activity, Paolucci he was also elected Ordinary Academician by the Academy of Drawing Arts in Florence. In 2007 he was appointed by Minister Francesco Rutelli to be part of the four expert members who supported Salvatore Settis in coordinating the work of the Superior Council for Cultural and Landscape Heritage.