Venetian art historian Ketty Gottardo has been appointed director of the Department of Graphic Arts at the Louvre Museum. The appointment, announced by Louvre President and Director Christophe Leribault and issued by decree of the French Minister of Culture, will take effect on October 1, 2026. The term of office will be three years, renewable.
An art historian and specialist in ancient drawings, with a degree from the University of Udine, Gottardo thus returns to the Louvre, where she began her career in 1999. In her new role, she will lead one of the museum’s most important departments, which houses one of the world’s leading collections of drawings, prints, and graphic works.
Having launched her career in both Italy and the United Kingdom, Gottardo studied art history in Udine and later at the Courtauld Institute in London, where she earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. After starting her career at the Louvre in the Department of Graphic Arts, her path took her to the United States, to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where she worked on the collection of French drawings.
She then worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, in the department dedicated to paintings and drawings, before returning to Paris and joining Christie’s, where she headed the department of old master drawings for several years. In this role, she coordinated numerous specialized auctions, including the sale of the renowned Yves Saint Laurent collection in 2009.
Since 2016, Gottardo has served as curator of drawings at the Courtauld Gallery in London, an institution where she has carried out extensive curatorial and scholarly work. Over the years, she has organized exhibitions dedicated to Renaissance figures such as Parmigianino and Antoine Caron, as well as to Henry Fuseli, Henri Michaux, and Louise Bourgeois. Her curatorial projects also include exhibitions exploring the image of the artist at work, 18th-century Venetian drawings, and the Oskar Reinhart Collection housed in Winterthur.
At the Courtauld, he also played a role in enriching the collections, contributing to the acquisition of particularly significant works, including Paul Gauguin’s last illustrated manuscript, *Avant et après*, as well as an important collection of English watercolors. Gottardo is currently preparing the catalog of Flemish drawings in the Courtauld Collection, which is expected to be published shortly.
This appointment thus marks the scholar’s return to the Parisian museum more than twenty-five years after the start of her career. Effective October 1, 2026, Ketty Gottardo will assume the directorship of the Louvre’s Department of Graphic Arts, bringing with her an international career spanning museums, the art market, and scholarly research.
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| Louvre: Venetian art historian Ketty Gottardo named new director of the Department of Graphic Arts |
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