Attilio Simonetti was born in Italy in 1843. He was a pupil and close friend of Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, one of the greatest Spanish Orientalist artists. Fortuny had come to Rome in 1858 where he met Simonetti and the two artists became friends and shared an atelier. Simonetti was the son of Francesco Simonetti, a silversmith who had a workshop in the Via del Corso, and his wife Carolina Raffaelli a member of a well-known family of mosaicists. Apart from a successful career as an artist (he sold many of his works through The Goupil Gallery) Simonetti was an avid collector of antiques. He conducted a sale of his collection in 1883, and after the success of this he decided to open an antiques gallery in Palazzo Odescalchi. He developed an...