Amnon Barzel, first director of Centro Pecci in Prato, dies at 90

Amnon Barzel, an Israeli art critic and curator who served as the first director of the Centro Luigi Pecci in Prato, has died at age 90 in Tel Aviv. Born in 1935, Barzel studied Natural Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Art History at the Sorbonne in Paris. He taught at the Avni Institute and the University of Haifa, and wrote for Haaretz from the 1970s. In 1971, he co-founded the Israeli magazine Painting and Sculpture. Between 1976 and 1985, he was responsible for Israeli works at the Venice Biennale and the São Paulo Art Biennial. Barzel directed the Centro Pecci from its opening in 1988 until 1992, making it the first building in Italy expressly built for contemporary art exhibitions. He later directed the City of European Sculpture in Turku, Finland (1992) and the Jewish Museum Berlin (1994–1997), resigning over autonomy disagreements. In Tuscany, he served as artistic director of the Targetti ArtLight Collection in Florence and as a consultant for the Gori Collection at the Fattoria di Celle in Pistoia. He authored over one hundred volumes including monographs, catalogues, and essays.