Stibbert Museum: The Fortunate Frederick Stibbert

Before entering Stibbert museum, we had no clue that it was actually the villa of Frederick Stibbert turned into a museum that we were visiting. Initially, we had this perception that it will just be like all the other museums that we had visited in Florence. However, we were overwhelmed the second we stepped foot into the first room of the museum.

Never had we expected this. The amount of items in it was certainly shocking, more so they were the collection of a single man. It left us to question the amount of wealth that Frederick Stibbert inherited from his grandfather to be able to collect this insane amount of objects, antiques, artifacts and paintings from all over the world.

This museum owes its reputation to its collection of arms and suits of armors that comprises an incredible number of varying and rare pieces ranging from the 15th to the 17th centuries. When we first entered, we were greeted by extension pieces of European, Oriental, Islamic and Japanese armory. The room was filled with knights on horseback and soldiers dressed in armor and holding weapons. It gave us a cold chill, as though we were in the ‘Night At The Museum’ movie. It was no surprise that the decorations and embellishments on the horses serve as a differentiator between soldiers of different ranks.

Another interesting aspect of the museum was that most of the wall drawings are in leather. From far, the walls looked like they were covered with ordinary wallpaper. However, as we took a closer look, the walls were actually covered by hand painted leather! Why were we not surprised, considering the amount of money already spent, this was just a tiny part of the total bill.

At the end of the tour, we were feeling envy of how lucky the man was to be able to not work and dedicate the rest of his life to collecting these objects after inheriting his grandfather’s wealth.

Shu Wei Wong & Gaile Tan