Lyde Browne (antiquary)

Lyde Browne FSA (died 10 September 1787, Foster Lane, Cheapside, London) was an 18th-century English antiquary and banker, who owned one of the largest antiquities collections of the time.

This now forms the nucleus of the classical sculpture collections of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and the Pavlovsk Palace in the city's suburbs.

In Rome in 1758, he met the sculptor Simon Vierpyl, the archaeologist William Wilkins, and the buyer and collector Thomas Jenkins.

In 1779, he published Catologo [sic] dei piu scelti e preziosi marmi, che si conservano nella galleria del Sigr Lyde Browne (Catalogue of the choicest and most precious marbles in the gallery of Mr Lyde Browne), another (Italian) catalogue of 260 objects.

He sold most of it to Catherine the Great for £22,000 in 1784,[citation needed] though his agent in St Petersburg went bankrupt and Browne only got £10,000 of this sum.