August Kestner

Georg Christian August Kestner (28 November 1777, in Hanover – 5 March 1853, in Rome) was a German diplomat and art collector.

From 1796 to 1799 Kestner studied law at the University of Göttingen and was immediately afterwards called up as a Vernehmungsrichter (interrogation judge) at the court in Hanover.

As such, he made his living from 1818 to 1849, among other things, as an official envoy and Minister-resident in Rome and Naples.

He, Theodor Panofka and Otto Magnus von Stackelberg founded the "Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica" in 1829, later to become the German Archaeological Institute, and was in 1838 entrusted with its direction as its secretary-general.

After his retirement from the civil service, Kestner lived in Rome until his death on 5 March 1853.