The colonial face casts of Nello Puccioni: an emblematic case from Italy's fascist period

This article focuses, for the first time, on an in depth and systematic study of the face casts production of the Florentine anthropologist Nello Puccioni. The face casts are housed at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the University of Florence. Puccioni took the face casts in the course of his expeditions to Somalia (1924 and 1935) and Libya (1928 and 1929) during the Italian colonial occupation in Africa. This collection represents an emblematic case study of sensitive artefacts created, displayed and disseminated during fascism. This research represents an essential step in the well-needed process of decolonization of the Florentine museum and its contents.