Barbara Jakobson

Barbara Jakobson, an art world power broker who was a longtime trustee of the Museum of Modern Art and who nurtured young artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and David Salle, died on Aug. 25 2025 in Manhattan. She was 92. Her daughters, Jenna Torres and Maggie Wheeler, said her death, in a hospital, was from pneumonia. Barbara Joan Petchesky was born on Jan. 31, 1933, in Brooklyn and grew up on Eastern Parkway. Her mother, Rose (Parnes) Petchesky, was the daughter of a clothing manufacturer; her father, Joseph Petchesky, was a lawyer. Barbara married John Jakobson, who would become a stockbroker, when she was a junior at Smith College studying art history and he was at Harvard Business School. The couple moved to NewYork and Ms. Jakobson worked for a short time in the junior department at Lord & Taylor. The Jakobsons divorced in 1983. In addition to her daughters, Ms. Jakobson is survived by a brother, Harry Petchesky, and three grandchildren. Her son, John Paul Jakobson, died in 2004.