1824-2015: The Egizio Museum, from Collecting to Connections

By Alessia Fassone, Conservator at the Egyptian Museum of Turin.

Egyptomania became even more widespread throughout Europe following Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign in 1798. This was when the French Consul of Egypt, Bernadino Drovetti, created his collection, which he sold to the kings of Savoy in 1823. As soon as the collection was installed in the capital of Piemont, a large number of renowned learned men – including the famous hieroglyph interpreter Jean-François Champollion – set to work studying each piece.

The Egyptian Museum of Turin is, like the museum in Cairo, devoted exclusively to Ancient Egyptian art and culture, and it has become one of the main centres for the study of Egyptology in Europe. Alessia Fassone will use a number of pieces from the museum’s collection to discuss how research into the relations between objects, the context of their provenance and information-sharing networks set up between international institutions means that fascinating new discoveries about Ancient Egyptian culture are still being made today.

Language: FR