Michele Gargiulo was born in an 18th century villa in Portici, by Naples, in 1946, when the toll of WWII was still in the air. The villa belonged to the Marquis of Caravita and the Reggia di Portici was then built next to it at the request of Charles III of Bourbon. The first excavations for Herculaneum were carried out in the gardens of the Marquis of Caravita, and Franco then grew up with a sense of archaeology and eventually dedicated himself to these studies. Aged twenty, at the end of the 1960s, he opened a workshop close to the Reggia di Portici and subsequently moved to the centre of Naples, in the most esteemed antiquarian area. He then moved to Via Carlo Poerio, where his prestigious gallery still stands. He became an expert and appraiser of the Naples Courthouse in 1980; his career saw him making relevant and extraordinary acquisitions from the most illustrious families of the Kingdom of Naples, establishing strong relationships based on regard and friendship. His great passion for art and good taste featured throughout his life and was carried out with dedication and sound competence. He lives in one of the prettiest houses of the golden mile, that is the one of Prince Granito of Belmonte, where he acquired the main floor with a view onto Capri. He owns a vast library, rich in rare art textbooks. His house was frescoed by the painter Francesco De Mura, active in the area in 1759, before his departure for Spain at the court of Charles III: he decorated several rooms, chiefly the Triumph of Bacchus, whose model is now kept at the Alte Pinakothek in Berlin. His house was built on one of the most important monuments of the ancient world, the Villa dei Papiri, which was excavated in the Settecento though a series of tunnels. Franco is a passionate expert and always looking for extraordinary objects; he has published several books on the works of art he discovered over time and were destined to sales, which also include essays by national and international art historians. He has sold works to several Italian museums, among which the Bust of the Duchess of Berry, now in the Palazzo Reale in Naples.