Émile Brugsch
Illustration — Émile Brugsch (1909) Émile Brugsch (February 24, 1842 – January 14, 1930) was a German Egyptologist known for having thrown on the rubbish heap an arm found in the tomb of Djer which Ancient Egyptians believed was the tomb of Osiris. He was also the official who evacuated the mummies of the Royal Cache from Deir el-Bahari in 1881 without recording the plan of the tomb. This has fuelled speculation that he was involved in the pilfering of antiquities.
Also recorded as Emile Brugsch · Émile Charles Adalbert Brugsch
Émile Brugsch
![Mummy-cases for Queen Hathor Hont-Taui, King Thothmes II and the priest Nebseni and their mummified contents. Wood engraving after E. Brugsch, 1882., [1882], by Émile Brugsch](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/V0042446/full/1280,/0/default.jpg)
Émile Brugsch · Wellcome Collection, London · Wellcome Collection · Public Domain Mark
- Born
- 1842 · Berlin.
- Died
- 1930 · Nice.
- Nationality
- Germany
- Occupation
- anthropologist · archaeologist · egyptologist · photographer · curator · conservator
- Languages
- German
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Émile Brugsch (1909) Émile Brugsch (February 24, 1842 – January 14, 1930) was a German Egyptologist known for having thrown on the rubbish heap an arm found in the tomb of Djer which Ancient Egyptians believed was the tomb of Osiris. He was also the official who evacuated the mummies of the Royal Cache from Deir el-Bahari in 1881 without recording the plan of the tomb. This has fuelled speculation that he was involved in the pilfering of antiquities.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Émile Brugsch (1842–1930) was an anthropologist, archaeologist and conservator, among other activities, of German nationality. The anthropologist was born in Berlin and died in Nice. Émile Brugsch worked for Egyptian Museum and worked in Cairo.
Languages used include German. Works are held at National Museum of World Cultures, Netherlands Photo Museum and Wereldmuseum Rotterdam.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 29 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Émile Brugsch. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q73057 · wikipedia · Émile Brugsch
In this article
Early life and education
Early life and education
The recorded working language is German. Places of work recorded in the authority are Cairo. Employment is recorded with Egyptian Museum. Work by Émile Brugsch is recorded in the collections of Netherlands Photo Museum, Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, National Museum of World Cultures and Michael C.
Emil Charles Adalbert Brugsch was born in Berlin on 24 February 1842. His elder brother was the Egyptologist Heinrich Karl Brugsch, who was babysitting him. Brugsch did attend secondary school but received no higher education. The autobiography of Adolf Erman is a primary source on the Brugsch family.
Career
Career
In 1904, Brugsch was assistant curator of the Boulaq Museum, the core element of what is today's Egyptian Museum. He assisted occult writer Aleister Crowley by having the Stele of Revealing translated by his assistant. The Stele became an integral part of Crowley's religion of Thelema and the translation was integrated into its foundational philosophical text, The Book of the Law.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1842
Émile Brugsch born at Berlin.
1930
Émile Brugsch died at Nice.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Berlin.
Birth place
Nice.
Death place
Death and legacy
Brugsch has been described as leaving "behind him an evil reputation" through his dealings in Egypt. He died in Nice, France, aged 87.
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q73057: Émile Brugsch
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Émile Brugsch”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ikram, Salima. The Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity. Thames & Hudson. 109. 1998.
- 2.Tyldesley, Joyce. Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh. Penguin Books Limited. 93. 1998.
- 3.Cooke. Journeys Erased by Time: The Rediscovered Footprints of Travellers in Egypt and the Near East. Archaeopress Publishing Limited. 81. 2019. 9781789692419.
- 4.Reeves, Nicholas. The Egyptian Collection of William Joseph Myers. Eton Collections Review. 3. 22–37. December 2008.
- 5.Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt. 162–163. 2017.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 2
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Emil ObrovskyPhotographer
- Emil Otto HoppéPhotographer
- Emil RathenauPhotographer
- Emila MedkováPhotographer
- Emile Hamilton-FellowesPhotographer
- Émile HamonicPhotographer
- Émile ReutlingerPhotographer
- Émile ReynaudPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Émile Brugsch?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.