Gildo Fossati was an Italian art historian, Resistance fighter, and professor of East Asian art at the University of Genoa. During World War II, he served as an officer in the Bersaglieri before joining the anti-fascist Resistance in northern Italy. Captured and sentenced to death in 1944, he was saved through a daring prisoner exchange and returned to command a partisan brigade in the Langhe. He played a key role in the liberation of Alba in April 1945. After the war, he devoted himself to scholarship, teaching, and writing, while remaining active in historical memory and veterans' organizations.