The late Olga Raggio
Olga Raggio, 82 [via], was, during her time at the Metropolitan Museum, one of the relatively rare high-ranking female museum professionals in this country. Seriously considered for the directorship that was ultimately won by Philippe de Montebello, she was at that time chairman of the Met’s Western European arts department. She was praised by Thomas Hoving, in his book about his own Met directorship, as “the sharpest eye in the business.”
In addition to her museum work, she had taught at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts as an adjunct professor. We learn from Grace Glueck‘s 1971 NY Times profile that Raggio was born in Rome and fluent in six languages.
I wish I could find you her photo and/or an appreciation on the Met’s website, but so far nothing is posted there. [UPDATE: The above photo was later supplied by a sympathetic Met staffer.] The best I can do is direct you to this obit in the NY Times classifieds that was placed there by the Met. It credits her for “her role in organizing ground-breaking exhibitions, such as ‘The Vatican
Collections: The Papacy and Art’ in 1981, and for exemplary publications
such as ‘The Gubbio Studiolo and its Conservation,’ 1999.”