Ugo Monneret de Villard

Ugo Monneret de Villard (16 January 1881 – 4 November 1954) was an Italian engineer, archaeologist, orientalist, historian, and art critic.

He assembled an extensive collection and record of Egyptian and Nubian art during his work in Egypt and Sudan for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ugo Monneret de Villard was born in Milan, Italy on 16 January 1881 to a family of Burgundian origins from Piedmont, where they had moved during the French Revolution.

Despite his work in Africa being technically affiliated with the government, Monneret de Villard had been cool toward the fascist regime, perhaps explaining him not bothering to attempt to gain an academic position in an era where professors were required to swear an oath to fascism.

[1][2][3] His archive of collected material and writings was donated by his family to the Archaeology and Art History Library in the Palazzo Venezia, Rome.

The collection was so overwhelming that David Storm Rice, who was assigned to investigate the boxes of his materials and organize them, died in 1962 without having completed the task.