Luisa Laureati, legendary gallerist of Galleria dell'Oca, dies at 86

Luisa Laureati, founder of the historic Galleria dell'Oca in Rome, died on the night of August 3–4, 2025, at her home in the Roman Ghetto at age 86. Born in 1939 in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, to police commissioner and art enthusiast Lando Laureati, she grew up surrounded by artists like Burri, Guttuso, Matta, and Cagli. After working as a secretary at the Quadriennale and Galleria L'Attico, she opened a bookstore named L'Oca near Piazza del Popolo in 1965, which became a meeting place for writers including Moravia, Pasolini, Ungaretti, and Flaiano. The shift to a gallery came in 1967 when Topazia Alliata needed to sell a Giorgio Morandi painting. The gallery's first exhibition featured drawings by Gastone Novelli. Galleria dell'Oca quickly became a hub of Rome's experimental art scene from the 1960s to 1980s, hosting artists such as Sebastian Matta, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Carol Rama, and Eliseo Mattiacci, as well as exhibitions of 20th-century masters like Filippo De Pisis, Giorgio Morandi, and Renato Guttuso. In 1974, Laureati married art historian Giuliano Briganti, forming an influential intellectual partnership that spanned publishing, collecting, and the market. The gallery closed in 2008 after moves to Via Margutta 54, Via della Mercede, and Via del Vantaggio. In 2022, Palazzo delle Esposizioni revived one of her curatorial projects: a 1978 exhibition pairing Mario Merz with historical Italian avant-gardes, organized with Luciano Pistoi and Gian Enzo Sperone.