The Egyptian Museum of Turin

The Egyptian Museum of Turin, the most important in Italy and the second in the world for its collection of Egyptian art after the one in Cairo, has a rich and fascinating history.

Entrance to the Egyptian Museum, Turin

The museum is housed in the Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze, an imposing seventeenth-century building designed by Guarino Guarini and completed by Michelangelo Garove.

Initially, the palace was the seat of the Collegio dei Nobili, only from 1783 onwards were some of its rooms assigned to the Academy of Sciences, founded in 1757.

The destiny of a museum came in 1824, when the Savoy king Carlo Felice placed there the vast collection (over 5200 pieces) purchased by the Piedmontese archaeologist Bernardino Drovetti, former general consul of France in Egypt.

The acquisition of the Drovetti collection, for which the Piedmontese state allocated 400 thousand lire, constituted the initial nucleus of the museum.

Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798 unleashed an intense "rush for Egyptian finds" in Europe, fueling collecting but also the looting of ruins by unscrupulous adventurers.

The Royal Museum of Antiquities and Egypt was officially inaugurated in 1832.

Initially seen as a collection of "curiosities" due to the lack of knowledge of the time about Egyptian civilization, between 1852 and 1855 the collection was permanently opened to the public and the first illustrated catalogue was produced.

In 1880, the museum came under the administration of the Kingdom of Italy.

In the following years, the collections were enriched thanks to new donations from the House of Savoy and, above all, by the precious findings of the excavation campaigns conducted directly in Egypt between 1900 and 1920 by the then director and distinguished Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli.

After the Second World War, the collection continued to grow with new gifts and purchases.

A significant moment was the addition, in 1966, of the entire rock temple of Ellesìja (circa 1430 BC), donated by the Egyptian government as a sign of gratitude for the contribution of Turin and its museum to the colossal relocation of the temples of Abu Simbel.

In recent years, the Egyptian museum has been completely renovated and reorganized to give a more logical and dignified location to the over 30,000 finds.

The project considered not only the critical and scientific aspect, but also the exhibition aspect, with scenographic paths and suggestive plays of light, and the educational aspect, with the creation of virtual and tactile itineraries for visitors with vision problems.