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Museum director · Museum buyer · Scholar

Luigi Adriano Milani

d. 1914 · Italy

Italian museum director and museum buyer. Worked at Florence. Bought from Giacomo Cecconi and Michael Caremfilaki.

Life and work

  1. 1873
    Arrived in Florence to study at the Regio Istituto di Studi Superiori; protege and later son-in-law of Prof. Domenico Comparetti. From 1879 he catalogued the Grand Ducal coin cabinet and then reorganised the collections for the new museum (opened 3 February 1883) alongside Ernesto Schiaparelli.

    FlorenceSoldi 2025, p. 10

  2. 1892
    Became Director of the Royal Museum (Egyptian Museum from 1894; directorship of the Etruscan excavations from 1900); held the posts until his death in 1914. He set out to place the Etruscans in their Mediterranean context with a section of prehistoric-to-Iron-Age comparative material from Greece, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus, and organised exchanges (Athens 1905, Brussels).

    FlorenceSoldi 2025, p. 10, p. 11

  3. 1892–1912
    Displayed the Colucci donation of Cypriot antiquities (in the Egyptian Museum since 1870-71) in Room XVIII on the first floor, and in his 1912 guide described it as the 'primitivo saggio di antichita cipriote' from the temple of Venus at Paphos (vitrine IV, compartments A-D, figurines and heads on the middle shelves).

    FlorenceSoldi 2025, p. 12Paolo 2010

  4. 10 January 1902
    Contacted by Cecconi (introduced by Prof. Giglioli), bought about fifteen Cypriot vessels and terracottas (18 objects now in Florence): offered 50 lire, Cecconi asked at least 60, Milani paid 60 lire (about 280 euros today per Soldi); the lot was shipped from Fano.

    FlorenceSoldi 2025, p. 12, p. 16, p. 17

  5. 1902–1903
    Used Cecconi as intermediary for purchases from the Larnaca dealer Michael Caremfilaki (Cecconi: 'throughout 1902 and 1903' per Soldi; 'for some months' per Lo Schiavo), then dealt with the dealer directly because Cecconi lacked archaeological knowledge and confused his requests.

    LarnacaSoldi 2025, p. 18Schiavo 2011

  6. 1903–1906
    Further Cypriot purchases from Caremfilaki (Bettelli and Lo Schiavo: 1903 and 1906; Di Paolo: new Florence purchases 1902-1909); the Cypriot collection reached 459 pieces, about 209 of them bought after the Colucci gift (250). He asked the dealer for 'Mycenaean and pre-Mycenaean' objects.

    FlorenceBettelli & Schiavo 2010Paolo 2010Soldi 2025, p. 19

  7. 1905
    Bought from Caremfilaki a lot (inv. 82420-82510) that included the Cypriot bronze tripod-stand and cup (inv. 82503-82504): offered 19 January at 300 francs, Milani counter-offered 250 francs on 7 June, delivered July 1905. In 1905 he refused a group of Roman glass vessels, and, as a policy, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine pieces, keeping to prehistoric, Bronze and Iron Age material.

    FlorenceSchiavo 2011, p. 87, p. 88Soldi 2025, p. 19

  8. 1906
    In a dispute with Halbherr he refused to send Luigi Pernier to the Italian excavations in Crete because he needed him as his main assistant in Florence ('dobbiamo prima curare le cose nostre e poi pensare anche al lusso e al decoro di fuori'); he also complained about the Phaistos and Haghia Triada material that reached Florence in 1905.

    FlorenceSoldi 2025, p. 20

Connections

5 people
Michael CaremfilakiGiacomo CecconiSebastiano SoldiSilvana Di PaoloRiccardo ColucciLuigi Adriano Milani
Sales & giftsScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Cecconi lot: 18 small vessels, terracottas, coins, a bronze dagger and a glass unguentarium (see giacomo-cecconi)

    Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze MAF 80140 (Mycenaean jar)January 1902Soldi 2025, p. 16, p. 17, p. 19

  • Cypriot bronze tripod-stand (h. 10.5-11.2 cm) and hemispherical cup, part of Caremfilaki's lot inv. 82420-82510

    Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze 82503, 82504July 1905Schiavo 2011, p. 88, p. 89

Sources

  1. 1.Sebastiano Soldi (2025). “The Italian entomologist Giacomo Cecconi and Cyprus: a step towards the formation of the Cypriot collection in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960, 93-.
  2. 2.L. A. Milani (1898). Museo topografico dell'Etruria. Florence and Rome, Fratelli Bencini.
  3. 3.L. A. Milani (1912). Il R. Museo archeologico di Firenze (two volumes). Florence, Ariani.
  4. 4.S. Sarti (2012). “Luigi Adriano Milani”. Dizionario biografico dei Soprintendenti Archeologi (1904-1974), 484-494. Bologna, Bononia University Press.
  5. 5.Fulvia Lo Schiavo (2011). “A Newly Rediscovered Cypriot Tripod-Stand in the Florence Archaeological Museum”. Metallurgy: Understanding How, Learning Why. Studies in Honor of James D. Muhly. INSTAP Academic Press.
  6. 6.M. Bettelli, F. Lo Schiavo (2010). “La raccolta del Museo archeologico di Firenze nel quadro della storia del collezionismo di antichità cipriote in Italia”. Researches in Cypriote History and Archaeology, 85-94. Florence University Press.
  7. 7.Silvana Di Paolo (2010). “"...dall'esempio dei suoi colleghi di Francia, Inghilterra e d'America..." ovvero il collezionismo di emulazione: la raccolta Colucci nel quadro dell'archeologia cipriota della seconda metà del XIX secolo”. Researches in Cypriote History and Archaeology, 75-83. Florence, Florence University Press.