Warrior crown (anfarro)

This warrior crown is composed by a golden metal structure studded with semiprecious stones and topped with a lion's mane.It is a kind of crown more elaborate than the classic fabric crown enriched with pendants and mane. The anfarro and the dignitary cape were usually given by kings and emperors to the ras, famous for their military operations, and to their allies. In the first decades of the XX century these items were also sent as gifts to the most important European state offices in the context of effort for the recogntion of the Kingdom and the entry into the League of Nations. This crown in particular arrived in Milan as a consequence of the Italo-Ethiopia war, maybe between the objects donated by General Alberto Pariani in 1940.