The  popular  interest  in  Greek  antiquities  that
was  fostered  in  England  by  the  Society  of
Dilettanti,  by  the  collections  of  noblemen,  and
by  the  foundation  of  the  British  Museum  (1759),
in  Germany  by  the  researches  of  Winckelmann
and  others,  was  aroused  equally  among  the
French  by  the  victories  of  Napoleon,  who  plun-
dered Italy  and  other  parts  of  Emope  of  many
works  of  art  in  order  to  form  in  Paris  a  Musee
Napoleon.  Under  Napoleon  too  the  royal  col-
lection in  the  Louvre  was  opened  to  the  public
as  the  Mus6e  Francais  (179S),  and  Visconti,  a
distinguished  Italian  scholar,  was  placed  in
charge  of  antiquities  in  France.
Napoleon's  booty,  which  came  largely  from
Italy,  was  naturally  Roman  for  the  most  part,
but  in  England  in  the  meanwhile  a  constantly
increasing  number  of  Greek  antiquities  was
being  gathered  in  the  Museum  as  well  as  in
private  collections.  Then  in  the  opening
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  occurred  a
notable  event  in  the  history  of  our  subject.
