Forbidden to use the image of the monuments without permission, the sentence on David which can also affect Open to wonder

Cultural assets are part of the collective identity of a people and a state, and are therefore protected by image rights. With a historic sentence, the court of Florence agreed with the Galleria dell’Accademia against a “famous publishing house” which, without granting the use of the image and without paying the fee, had published the modified image of the David of Michelangelo in one of his magazines for advertising purposes. In 2017, the same court had issued another decision to protect the David, «inhibiting its illicit use for commercial purposes», recalls the Gallery in a statement, which is now celebrating «another decisive result: for the first time , in a ruling on the merits, the existence of the right to the image of cultural heritage as an expression of the constitutional right to the collective identity of citizens who recognize themselves in the same nation”. The judges highlighted that, just as the fundamental charter in article 2 protects the right to “personal identity, understood as the right not to have one’s intellectual, political, social, religious, ideological and professional heritage altered and disguised, so it is necessary protect, pursuant to art. 9 of the Constitution, the right to collective identity of citizens who recognize themselves as belonging to the same nation also by virtue of the artistic and cultural heritage which is part of the memory of the national community”.

Botticelli’s Venus influencer

The judges recognized the “insidious and mischievous” use of the image of David di Donatello, combined for advertising and commercial purposes with the image of a model with the mechanism of lenticular paper converting, “thus debasing, obscuring, mortifying, humiliating the high symbolic and identifying value of the work of art and serving it for advertising and editorial promotion purposes”. The illegitimate use of the David resulted in non-pecuniary damage – linked to the debasement of the work, and herein lies the novelty – quantified at 30,000 euros, in addition to pecuniary damage of 20,000 euros for not having paid the fee for the use of the well, as per the museum’s price list. “Another great achievement”, exulted the director of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, “now a principle has been affirmed that goes beyond the individual case”. Indeed, on this point there are already those who are wondering whether the government has taken all the necessary precautions for the launch of Open to Wonder. Botticelli’s Venus was in fact rendered graphically as a modern influencer who travels around Italy and is the main testimonial of the advertising campaign. In the weeks following its launch, Open to wonder ended up at the center of numerous controversies – theultima no later than last week. Now the question arises whether the Ministry of Tourism, Foreign Affairs and Sport, which they have organized the project together with the CEO of Eni Ivana Jelinic, have agreed with the Uffizi Gallery the rights to exploitation, and if there is no similarity with the case of Michelangelo’s David, for which the judges have recognized an “insidious” use and malicious” on the part of the publishing house, “thus debasing, obfuscating, mortifying, humiliating the high symbolic and identity value of the work of art”.

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