Italy as the “second homeland” of Egyptology. From Rome to Turin via Milan, Trieste and Cagliari: unique and legendary artefacts go on display.
Ancient Egypt comes back to life in a series of exhibitions bringing previously unseen artefacts and masterpieces to Italy. Just a few months after the opening in Cairo of the Grand Egyptian Museum, following 20 years of work and with Italy playing a significant role in the project, Italy is now returning the gesture. After all, the country is widely regarded as the “second homeland” of Egyptology.
It is enough to consider that Turin is home to the oldest museum in the world devoted exclusively to Egyptian civilisation, while Rome is the city with the largest number of obelisks in the world, more than those still standing intact in Cairo.
In Rome, the exhibition “Tesori dei Faraoni” at the Scuderie del Quirinale has been extended until 14 June. This is not the usual retrospective, but an unprecedented act of cultural diplomacy, bringing to the capital 130 absolute masterpieces, many of which are leaving Egypt for the first time. Curated by Tarek El Awady — former director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and one of the world’s leading Egyptologists — the exhibition, arranged across six thematic sections, is in effect a profound investigation into the complexity of a millennia-old society, from the dawn of pharaonic civilisation to the height of the New Kingdom and the nuances of the Third Intermediate Period. Also brought into focus are the pulse of daily life, the refinement of funerary practices and the mysteries of religious beliefs. Majestic statues of Sennefer, Ramses VI and Thutmose III rise through the galleries as icons of power. Alongside them, visitors can admire royal jewels, decorated sarcophagi and everyday objects that speak of daily life. Particular emphasis is also given to the archaeological discoveries of recent years, offering a real-time update on excavations that continue to rewrite history.
At the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, the New Ancient Egypt Gallery opened on 5 March, marking the return of the city’s civic collection after nine years of closure and restoring to Milan one of the most fascinating Egyptian collections in Italy. The display features 330 artefacts — 80 more than before — in a total immersion spanning six thousand years of history, from the fourth millennium BC to the Coptic period. The “heart” of the exhibition beats around a special section, “Milano in Egitto”, celebrating the epic story of Achille Vogliano, professor at the University of Milan, who in the 1930s led legendary excavations in the Fayum Oasis. It was thanks to those expeditions, far-sightedly funded by the Municipality of Milan, that the celebrated statue of Pharaoh Amenemhat III arrived in the city. The real surprise of the new display is the historic reunification of an extraordinary artefact: a papyrus around seven metres long, owned by the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico.
The Stables of Miramare Castle in Trieste open their doors to an exhibition conceived as a journey of discovery through the collection of Egyptian antiquities assembled by Maximilian of Habsburg, who was swept up in the “Egyptomania” that captivated European courts in the nineteenth century. The exhibition “Una sfinge l’attrae. Massimiliano d’Asburgo e le collezioni egizie tra Trieste e Vienna” explores precisely this passion, revealing how the Archduke’s taste for collecting ancient Egyptian objects became both an instrument of knowledge and a marker of international prestige. One of the project’s strengths lies in its exploration of the local historical context: in the mid-nineteenth century, Trieste was a vibrant crossroads of mercantile exchanges and diplomatic relations with Egypt. The exhibition reconstructs this network of contacts, which made the Adriatic city a privileged port not only for goods, but also for treasures and ideas from the land of the pharaohs. For the occasion, the Stables host a selection of highly significant artefacts. Among the highlights are loans from the “Miramar” section of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna — which preserves the core of the Archduke’s original collection — together with important contributions from the Museo d’Antichità J.J. Winckelmann in Trieste.
In Cagliari, at the Bastione di Saint Remy, the exhibition “Tutankhamon” presents the only official replicas in the world, certified directly by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, of the most representative objects from Tutankhamun’s great treasure. These are not simple copies, but highly faithful reproductions that allow visitors to observe up close the details of the most iconic artefacts from the legendary funerary assemblage of the Valley of the Kings.
Thanks to a carefully calibrated mix of scenographic reconstructions, virtual reality and immersive routes, the exhibition offers a genuine “quantum leap” through time.
By wearing VR headsets, visitors can cross the threshold of antiquity’s most famous funerary monument and relive, moment by moment, the emotion that overwhelmed archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, when he discovered in the Valley of the Kings at Luxor the only pharaonic burial to have yielded an almost intact funerary assemblage.
This Italian journey through the artefacts of Egypt can only conclude at the Museo Egizio in Turin, where, from 11 March and for the next ten years, the Gallery of Kings will host the statue of the god Amun, one of the outstanding pieces from the Egyptian collection of the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe, Germany, currently closed to the public for renovation. Dating from between 1353 and 1334 BC, the statue is a masterpiece of Egyptian sculpture from the post-Amarna period.
Cover image: Tomba delle Vigne © Museo Egizio, Turin
