Sirio Tofanari was an Italian sculptor famous for his works depicting animals.

Already at the age of 14, perhaps influenced by his father's passion for hunting, he showed a keen interest in animal figures and an innate ability to represent them plastically.

In 1906 he went to Paris, and immediately afterwards to London, where he was able to give free rein to his instinct and intuition as an artist starting from the study and observation of live animals. Upon his return to Italy, his works were exhibited at the Faenza exhibition in 1908, where the king purchased one of his bronze gazelles. From 1909 to 1936 he took part in almost all the Venice Biennials and in 1925 in the III Roman Biennial of Art, where he participated with a personal room. Numerous exhibitions also took place abroad, including San Francisco (1916), Buenos Aires (1923) and Brussels (1928), where the Queen of Belgium made personal purchases. In 1926 he created the “Crocodile Fountain” which was installed in the new “Tettuccio” spa in Montecatini Terme, inaugurated on 17 October 1926. During the construction of the spa he met the famous ceramist Galileo Chini and became friends with him.

In 1937 he moved to Milan where he was called to carry out works on behalf of Comm. Antonio Feltrinelli and for Senator Giorgio Enrico Falck and other personalities. On 17 February 1949, with a special decree of the President of the Italian Republic, he was appointed National Academician of the illustrious National Academy of San Luca in Rome, for the Sculpture Class.

He died at the age of 83.