The Archaelogical Department of the Museum of the Town of Varaždin was founded in the first half of the 20th century. There are approximately 10 000 artifacts ranging from the prehistory to the early middle ages kept in the Museum's collections. The Museum stores today also the artifacts from a smaller collection that belonged to the Pasthory-Varady family. The museum consultant Marina Šimek, Prof., is in charge of the entire collection.

The Egyptian collection of the Pasthory-Varady family came to be probably in the 19th century when one of the family members stayed in Egypt during his diplomatic service. After his return to the country, the artifacts were kept in the Križovljan castle, and from that place they were moved later to the museum.

It cannot be determined with certainty the time when the artifacts arrived to the Museum, but one can assume that this took place in the first half of the 19th century.

The collection contains six artifacts : a glass from the predynastic period (the Badari culture or early Nagada I; inv. num. AO 6521), a sepulchral stela of Mery Mery from the time of Amenhotep III (the 18th dynasty; inv. num. AO 5279), four canopic jars from the time of Psamtik I (the 26th dynasty; inv. num. AO 5280-5283). A predynastic glass from the Badari or Nagada I period is the oldest artifact of the Egyptian culture stored in any Croatian museum institution which makes this collection very valuable. All the artifacts are very fine artistically and well preserved.

The artifacts from collection were published by M. Panić (1974, 1976), M. Tomorad (2002), and M. Tomorad & I. Uranić (in print).

M.T.