From a family of doctors and artists, welcomed by the students of Lampedusa, surgeon and anthropologist, Umberto Eco defined Antonio Pasqualino as 'the man of the puppets'. His love for the Sicilian Puppet Theatre matured in Palermo before the war and bloomed into the dedication of a great studious, collector and promoter of the preservation of popular heritage. In Sicily, since the middle of the Nineteenth century a vast public was conquered by the genius of the great puppeteers. Pasqualino (1931-1995) investigated this extraordinary encounter between the epic-chivalrous literature and the folklore. With the help of his Danish wife, Janne Vibaek, he battled for the survival of the Sicilian Puppet Theatre, in crisis with the arrival of the television and founded the 'Museo internazionale delle marionette'.