He engaged several agents and was particularly active in Luxor; shortly he gathered huge amounts of findings which he managed to sell in Europe.

[1] His first collection was refused by France, but was acquired by King Charles Felix of Sardinia in 1824 and carried to Turin, where it became the first core of the future Museo Egizio.

[1] Among the antiquities sold to the King of Sardinia, there was the invaluable Turin Royal Canon, a papyrus bearing a list of several pharaohs which is datable to the reign of Ramesses II and which was found by Drovetti at Luxor in 1820.

[1] While he contributed significantly to the creation of three of the largest Egyptological collections in Europe and substantially increased the European interest in ancient Egypt, Drovetti is also remembered for his ruthlessness towards other collectors and excavators.

[3] Drovetti and his agents were also deemed careless and unscrupulous in their conduct towards their discoveries, and it is believed that the fragmentary state of the Turin Royal Canon is at least partially due to this behaviour.