In the 18th century, scholars and scientists travelled to study the cultures of "others" in situ. The French Revolution and, above all, Napoleon's expeditions, marked the end of a study of the "other" that would leave material evidence of its culture in situ. Intellectual and material appropriation became intrinsically linked. From then on, museums attracted what Europe believed to be the "other" and had brought to itself. The new museums opened between the 1820s and 1850s, following Napoleon's great restitution, were quick to welcome non-European objects, in this case Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities - derived from biblical archaeology - and pre-Columbian objects - it was in 1850 that the American Museum - "Salle des antiquités américaines (Mexique et Pérou)" - was created in the Musée du Louvre. The presence of the same agents and intermediaries between the initial, common sources and the museums, helped to give the latter a homogeneous character and, very quickly, an emulation between museums was born.
For example, the museums of London, Paris, Berlin and Turin competed in the acquisition of Egyptian antiquities - Egypt became an object of scientific study with Bonaparte's expedition of 1798. From 1823 onwards, a period of acquisitions by museums of collections formed by consuls and adventurers began: the latter had collected these antiquities on site, brought them back to Europe and circulated them among the capitals, which, depending on their finances and scientific interest in the objects, sought to appropriate them. In 1823, the British Museum bought a series of antiquities from British consul Henry Salt, including a colossal head of Ramses II; immediately afterwards, Berlin acquired the collection of Italian general Minutoli. In 1824, Turin came into possession of the first part of Consul Bernardino Drovetti's collection, and in 1826, Paris purchased the second part of Henry Salt's collection.
