Barbara Jatta, the first woman to direct the Vatican Museums in their 512-year history, says that she grew up amid the smells of solvent. Her father was a lawyer but, she pointed out when I met her at the Vatican, “it’s more important to my career that my mother is a painter – as was my Russian grandmother – and art restorer, as is my sister.”
Jatta seemed destined for the world of art. One grandfather, Andrea Busiri Vici, was a renowned Roman architect with Vatican connections. Her uncle Antonio Jatta filled his mansion in Ruvo di Puglia, in the heel of the Italian boot, with Greek vases found on his property. He was a lecturer in architecture and a parliamentarian, and his descendants still live in his mansion which has become a state museum.
