A German woman, Cecilie Hollberg, is to be the new director of the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The Accademia, second museum in Italy for its total number of visitors after the Uffizi Gallery, has the most sculptures by Michelangelo in the world (seven), including the famous David.

Hollberg is one of seven foreigners selected to head some of the top museums in Italy: the Uffizi Gallery in Florence will have another German, Eike Schmidt, while a French woman will lead the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples and the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan will be run by  a Canadian-English man (James Bradburne, who up until a few months ago was the director of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence).

The announcement came yesterday from MiBACT as the international competition drew to a close with the selection of the 20 new directors of some of Italy’s top museums. Four of the 13 Italians selected will return to Italy after important experiences abroad, while the winds, 10 are men, 10 are women.

Hollberg, 48, art historian and cultural manager, born in Soltau in Lower Saxony, completed her university studies in history and political science in Rome, Göttingen, Monaco, Germany, Venice and Trento. In 2001, she received her doctorate in medieval history in Göttingen.

Since 2010,  Hollberg has been director of the Städtisches Museum in Brunswick. Previously, she worked as a curator and scientific-technical officer in the museum sector in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin. She teaches at universities in Germany and Switzerland and is the author of numerous publications.

Posted by Lourdes Flores on news