59 1. Introduction The Mimara Museum was founded by the City of Zagreb as the institution which holds the large private collection (3750 artifacts) of Ante Topić Mimara (Korušca, 1898– Zagreb, 1987). Mr. Topić Mimara donated his art collection to the Socialist Republic of Croatia and the Council of the City of Zagreb on October 6 th 1973 and October 29 th 1986. 1 Museum Mimara was opened to the public on the 17 th of July, 1987.he artifacts of the Egyptian provenance are kept in two collections, the Archaeological collection 2 , and the Glass collection. The Archaelogical collection of the Mimara Museum contains 617 artistic artifacts dating from prehistory to the formation of the first medieval states. During his lifetime of collecting Ante Topić Mimara was guided by his affinity towards the aesthetics of art, according to his knowledge of history, culture and of different cultures and civilisations. The main characteristics of the collection are the diversity of styles and long periods of time the artifacts encompass, their different geographic origin, and the various materials they are made of. The permanent museum display is in chronological order and presents works of art in collections of Asian art, glass, archaeology, European sculpture, decorative arts, carpets, ivory, European paintings, icons and drawings. The works of art in the collection of archaeology belong to the ancient cultures of Europe, Middle East and South America. 2. The Ancient Egyptian collection Inside the Archaeological collection 35 artifacts of Egyptian origin dating from Predynastic Egypt to Late 1 Tomorad 2003a: 64; 2 The ex-Collection of Ancient Civilizations. Antiquity are kept. 3 The collection contains three artifacts from the Naqada I–III period 4 twenty artifacts from pharaonic Egypt, and twelve Coptic artifacts 5 which makes this collection unique in Croatia. The Ancient Egyptian artifacts in the Mimara collection were purchased by the donor at the international art market. Their sites of origin are unknown. The attributions given to the artifacts upon their entrance to the museum were systematically rechecked by general research methods– stylistic analysis, comparative method and analysis of data provided by XRF laboratory test and other similar laboratory methods. Following the results of these tests, some attributions were changed, but the value of the entire collection remains high. Two artifacts have been identified as 19 th century replicas which, at the time, were produced in great numbers, often found their place into the collections of great European museums as a manifestation of the idea of art historical continuity. The variety of artifacts in the collection reflects the period between the end of the 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century. During this time a collector’s wish to present himself as an enlightened connoisseur of art determined his choice to gather objects from all periods of time and in all styles of art in spite of the donor’s evident preference towards certain art forms. Respecting the donor’s wish to create a museum that would become a place of national heritage and methods of modern curatorship, this important collection of art 3 Tomorad 2003a: 64–67; Tomorad 2005: 11–12; Tomorad 2006a: 16–17; Čukman Nikolić & Tomorad 2014; Tomorad, in press. 4 Tomorad 2009: 541–544; Tomorad 2012b. 5 Tomorad 2003: 65, 57; Tomorad 2005: 12; Tomorad 2006a: 17; Čukman Nikolić & Tomorad 2014: 90-94, nos. 15-25, 106-111, figs. 15- 25; Tomorad, in press. The Collection of Egyptian Artifacts in the Mimara Museum in Zagreb (Croatia) Ivana Čukman Nikolić The Mimara Museum, Zagreb, Croatia Mladen Tomorad University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Abstract: The authors in this paper presents thirtyfive Egyptian artifacts from Predynastic, Pharaonic and Coptic Egypt which are kept in the Museum Mimara in Zagreb, Croatia. These artifacts were most likely purchased at the international art market between the First and Second World war. Mr. Topić Mimara donated his art collection to the Socialist Re- public of Croatia and the Council of the City of Zagreb on October 6 th 1973 and October 29 th 1986. His collection was presented to the public in the newly open museum in 1987. The Ancient Egyptian collection contains 505 artifacts which are separated in two collections: The Glass collections (470 artifacts), and the Archaeological collection (ex-collection of Ancient Civilizations). Keywords: Museum Mimara, Ancient Egyptian collection, Coptic collection