Biography

Bernardino Drovetti joined Napoleon's army after his graduation in Turin, subsequently becoming minister of war, chief of staff, and commissioners of foreign relations in Egypt. While in Egypt Drovetti became interested in Egyptian antiquity, so interested that he resigned his post to solely collect. Some of his methods are now viewed critically. It is in his capacity of antiquarian that William Henry Seward referenced him in his November 5, 1859 letter from Turin, where he was viewing some of the pieces from the collection. Drovetti was later appointed as Consul-General in 1829. Some of the items he collected are now housed at the Louvre.