Layla Soudavar Diba (Persian: لیلا سودآور-دیبا) is an Iranian-American independent scholar of art history and curator.

[6][7] From 1975 to 1979, Layla Diba was the founding director of Negārestān Museum (Persian: موزه نگارستان), a public collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century Iranian painting, based in Tehran, Iran.

In December 2009, she held the role "scholar-in-residence" at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design.

[11] In 2013, Layla S. Diba and Fereshteh Daftari co-curated the exhibition, Iran Modern (2013) shown at the Asia Society in New York.

[12] The exhibition was the first major exhibition of modern art from Iran, featuring 26 artists which included Ahmad Aali, Abbas, Massoud Arabshahi, Siah Armajani, Mohammad Ehsai, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Mansour Ghandriz, Marcos Grigorian, Ghasem Hajizadeh, Nahid Hagigat, Bahman Jalali, Rana Javadi, Reza Mafi, Leyly Matine-Daftary, Ardeshir Mohassess, Bahman Mohassess, Nicky Nodjoumi, Houshang Pezeshknia, Faramarz Pilaram, Behjat Sadr, Abolghassem Saidi, Sohrab Sepehri, Parviz Tanavoli, Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam, Manoucher Yektai, and Hossein Zenderoudi.