Antonio Paolucci, one of Italy's most well-known art historians and Minister of Cultural and Environmental Heritage under Lamberto Dini's government from 1995 to 1996, died at the age of 84. Born in Rimini, he obtained a degree in Art History and commenced employment at the Ministry of Education, which assumed the responsibilities that were subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage until 1975. During the 1980s, he was promoted to the position of first superintendent for artistic and historical heritage in Venice. Subsequently, he assumed similar positions in Verona, Mantua, and Florence. Following the 1997 earthquake in Umbria, he was designated extraordinary government commissioner for the repair of Assisi's Basilica of St. Francis. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him director of the Vatican Museums, a position he maintained until 2016.
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