of the post. Agnelli served for more than a year, which in the fragile politics of postwar Italy makes her one of the most long-lasting holders of the office. One of her first meetings was with then United States Secretary of State, Warren Christopher. Agnelli was active in environmentalist causes. Between the 1970s and 1980s, she was president of the World Wildlife Fund and was the only Italian member of the United Nations (UN) World Commission for the Environment and Development (Brundtland Report), later known as the Brundtland Commission. She also sat on the first board of the UN International Institute for Ageing. Her mayoralty, which included a local left-wing alliance between the self-styled PRI party of enlightened capitalism and the Italian Communist Party, a party that held high esteem for her anti-speculation efforts, was characterized by soil defence. As a mayor, she also expressed her favourable view about the new abortion law in Italy that legalized abortion, for which the city's bishop excommunicated her. Since the early 1990s, Agnelli was president of the Steering Committee of Telethon, which was founded in Italy in 1990. In 1997, she set up the Il Faro Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to help Italian and foreign young people in difficulty in the labour market. She had a popular mail column titled "Private answers" in the weekly magazine Oggi. In an interview to The Washington Post several years before her death, Agnelli discussed the most difficult part of politics. She said: "Sitting for days listening to people talk, talk, talk. Male politicians can stand up and talk to an empty house, where there are six people reading newspapers. I could never do that. It's such a waste of time." Personal life and death In 1945, Agnelli married Count Urbano Rattazzi Jr. (1918–2012), the great-grandson of two-time prime minister Urbano Rattazzi of the Historical Left, and they had six children, the youngest of whom is photographer Priscilla Rattazzi, who said Agnelli loved New York City. Until 1960, they lived in Argentina. The marriage was dissolved in 1975. She divided her time between New York and Italy, and she was long a loyal fan of Robert Denning, of Denning & Fourcade, who designed over 15 homes for her in Manhattan, South America, and Italy. Agnelli died in Rome on 15 May 2009, aged 87. Since 3 April 2009, she had been hospitalized at the Agostino