WORLD POLICE MUSEUM
The Private Collection of Antonio De Montis
The piece for bid is an authentic item from this important collection
The WORLD POLICE MUSEUM is the most important and complete collection of uniforms, badges and hats from all the Police Forces from over 150 Nations, from the early 1900`s to the Contemporary period.
Antonio De Montis, was a Deputy Officer of the Urban Police department in Milan and a pioneer of collecting militaria in Europe, a life member of the International Police Association (IPA) and an honorary member of the National Police Officials of America. He devoted himself with an immense passion and dedication not only to his duty as a talented officer of the state post-war, but also to his own passion of collecting and creating the World Police Museum.
In 1956, the Commander in service at the time, Mr.Pietro Girola, gave Antonio a gift, his first military memorabilia. This first piece of memorabilia started his 50 year passion he subsequently sent over 3500 letters all over the world to the local police and government in order to find and collect the material for the development of his project, The World Police Museum. In a little over three years, he had the honor of presenting the first part of his collection, at the first International Conference of IPA held in Naples in 1961, in the Congress Palace at The Oltremare Exhibition.
Subsequently, the Collection greatly expanded over the 30 years to over 6000 pcs, with a large amount of exchanges between collectors of militaria and has received numerous awards and commendations as a result of the 15 international exhibitions that have been organized until now, in which his desire and his biggest 'ambition, was to create the first POLICE MUSEUM of THE WORLD, with recognized international and worldwide value, and it’s finally realized.
Unfortunately, Antonio De Montis passed on June 30, 2010, at the age of 81 years old. Soon after his death he received commendations for his career by the Mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti. At present his project of the INTERNATIONAL POLICE MUSEUM is being taken care of by his only Son Andrea De Montis.