Statue of a cat

The Giovanni Acerbi (Castelgoffredo 1773, Castelgoffredo 1846) collection is one of the most important Egyptian collections in Italy. Acerbi was a man of many interests who lived an adventurous life: his political career lead him to become Consul of Austria in Lisbon; his literary career to become director of the periodical “Biblioteca Italiana”. However his main passion was traveling: as a young man he visited the Scandinavian regions, where he reached North Cape. Most of his life was however centered around Egypt: in this ancient land he was appointed Austrian consulate in 1862. He took the opportunity to develop his passion for archaeology and to study the ancient culture of the Pharaohs, by collecting materials and traveling through northern Egypt, journeys he documented in travel journals that are still accessible. Today his finds are kept in various museums, in Milan, Florence, Pavia, Padua.