Musei Civici “Gian Giacomo Galletti”

The American ethnographic collection of the Musei Civici di Domodossola comes from the Fondazione “Gian Giacomo Galletti” (1869–1984), to which the objects were donated between 1880 and 1915. On 18 June 2021 the Civic Museums inaugurated a new display, exhibiting part of the collections that had belonged to this foundation. These, however, do not include the American objects which, although once exhibited at Palazzo Silva, are today kept in storage. They were gathered by various individuals who, in the course of their travels, were captivated by the material culture of the extra-European peoples they encountered. Thanks to the information preserved in the inventories and archival documentation it is possible, for almost all the objects, to establish the specific period in which they were collected and the circumstances of their acquisition by the museum.

The collection consists of around 200 artifacts, dating from the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth and originating from Mesoamerica and the Central and Southern Andes. Its heterogeneous character reflects this diversity. It includes objects related to warfare and hunting, rings, pendants, necklaces, earrings, bottles, ceramics, pouches, various small plaques, bowls, figurines, portions of textiles and garments, gourds, as well as various decorated fragments.