Antonio Lebolo (died 19 February 1830?) was an

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

n antiquities excavator and adventurer, best remembered for having stolen the

Joseph Smith Papyri The Joseph Smith Papyri (JSP) are Ancient Egypt, Egyptian funerary papyrus fragments from ancient Thebes, Egypt, Thebes dated between 300 and 100 BC which, along with four mummies, were once owned by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day ...

, a collection of documents he took from a burial site in Egypt.

Biography

Born in

Castellamonte Castellamonte is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about north of Turin. It is located in the Canavese, at the feet of a hill surmounted by a 14th-century castle, hence the name ...

in the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, Lebolo became a ''

gendarme A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "men-at-arms" (). In France and som ...

'' during the Napoleonic occupation of Italy; after the Restauration he fled to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

where he became an agent of

Bernardino Drovetti Bernardino Michele Maria Drovetti (January 7, 1776 – March 5, 1852) was an Italian antiquities looter, diplomat, and politician. He is best remembered for having acquired the Turin Royal Canon and for his questionable behavior in collecti ...

, who was the French

Consul-General A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

of Egypt as well as an ardent antiquities collector. Lebolo oversaw many excavations mainly in the zone of

Luxor Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...

, usually on behalf of Drovetti and sometimes for himself. He apparently was as ruthless as his boss Drovetti, as

Giovanni Battista Belzoni Giovanni Battista Belzoni (; 5 November 1778 – 3 December 1823), sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. He is known for his removal to England of the seven-tonn ...

reported during one of his excavations at

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (), comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the ...

in 1818 and later: along with another Piedmontese agent named Rosignani, Lebolo harassed and maybe even tried to murder Belzoni, and later managed to steal some of his finds excavated at

Philae The Philae temple complex (; , , Egyptian: ''p3-jw-rķ' or 'pA-jw-rq''; , ) is an island-based temple complex in the reservoir of the Aswan Low Dam, downstream of the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser, Egypt. Originally, the temple complex was ...

., p. 166 Between 1817 and 1821 Lebolo found a

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

cache in a

shaft tomb A shaft tomb or shaft grave is a type of deep rectangular burial structure, similar in shape to the much shallower cist grave, containing a floor of pebbles, walls of rubble masonry, and a roof constructed of wooden planks. Practice The pract ...

Sheikh Abd el-Qurna The necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna () is located on the West Bank at Thebes, Egypt, Thebes in Upper Egypt. It is part of the archaeological area of Deir el-Bahari, and named after the domed tomb of the local saint. This is the most frequently v ...

. The finest mummies were given to Drovetti and are now in the

Egyptian Museum of Berlin The Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of Berlin () is home to one of the world's most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including the Nefertiti Bust. Since 1855, the collection is a part of the Neues Museum on Berlin's ...

(no. 504, 505), others were sold to Heinrich Menu von Minutoli, Giovanni Anastasi,

Frédéric Cailliaud Frédéric Cailliaud (9 June 1787 – 1 May 1869) was a French naturalist, mineralogist and conchologist. He was born, and died, in Nantes, where he was the curator of the Natural History Museum of Nantes from 1836 to 1869. He travelled in Egypt ...

and Henry Salt; Salt placed the objects he bought in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

(no. 6705, 6706, 6708 and likely 6950). Lebolo kept the remaining mummies for himself. Lebolo died some years after these events, possibly on February 19, 1830 in Castellamonte or in an unknown date in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

Joseph Smith Papyri

A few years later, a man named Michael H. Chandler claimed to be Lebolo's nephew and demanded Lebolo's goods in inheritance. In 1833 he obtained the inheritance and took the mummies and some accompanying papyri to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, selling them during his travels. In 1835, Chandler met

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...

, the founder of

Mormonism Mormonism is the theology and religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationism, Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to va ...

, and some of his affiliates. Since Smith claimed to be able to translate

Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...

, Chandler showed him the papyri. Smith purchased the mummies and papyri, and interpreted some of the writings and scenes as some life events of the two patriarchs

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

and

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

. The papyri were soon called the ''Joseph Smith Papyri'' and formed the core of Smith's

Book of Abraham The Book of Abraham is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1842 by Joseph Smith. Smith said the book was a translation from several Egyptian scrolls discovered in the early 19th century during an archeologic ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebolo, Antonio 1830 deaths Italian explorers of Africa 19th-century Italian explorers History of the Latter Day Saint movement Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism) People from the Metropolitan City of Turin Book of Abraham