Fernanda Wittgens

Life & Legacy

Fernanda Wittgens (3 April 1903 – 11 July 1957) was an Italian art historian and museologist. She was the first woman to direct a major museum in Italy. Appointed director of the Pinacoteca di Brera in 1940 and subsequently of the Lombardy Gallery in 1950, she organized rescue operations during World War II to protect the collections of several Milanese museums threatened by bombing and Nazi plunder, while also establishing an underground network to help persecuted Jewish families escape. Arrested in July 1944 and sentenced to four years in prison, she was released shortly before the Italian campaign (World War II). After the war, she oversaw the restoration of the Pinacoteca and spearheaded the "Grande Brera" project. She was posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 2014.