Federico Zeri (August 21, 1921 - October 5, 1998) was an Italian art historian. He was born in Rome. Zeri studied at Rome University[1]
In 1963 he directed the foundation of the John Paul Getty Museum of Malibu. He was a specialist in the Italian painting of the 13th and 14th centuries,[2] and latterly professor at the Catholic University of Milan. He wrote for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, and authored many books.
In 1984 he showed that the alleged Amedeo Modigliani's sculptures found in Livorno were amateurish work made by students.
Zeri died at the age of 77[3] in Mentana on October 5, 1998.[4]
He was called "another angel of enlightenment (...) a dying breed. It is possible that our culture, with its mirthless, professionalized preoccupation with specialized precincts of knowledge, will never again bring forth a generation as effortlessly erudite and at home in European culture as the best of Zeri's generation have been" (GARDNER, JAMES. "Twice Blest." National Review 42, no. 24 (December 17, 1990): 46-51).