The image of Michelangelo’s David is protected: it can no longer end up on books and cups without paying the rights

The image of Michelangelo’s David cannot be used without authorization, especially for advertising, because it is part of the collective imagination of the nation which must be considered a protected asset. The Court of Florence has recognized the existence of the right to the image of cultural heritage: it is the first ruling on the merits that places our legal system at the forefront in the field of cultural heritage protection. After the historic victory of 2017, when the Court of Florence granted – with a precautionary order – protection to the image of Michelangelo’s David by prohibiting its illicit use for commercial purposes, the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence achieved another decisive result: for the first time, in a ruling on the merits, the existence of the right to the image of cultural heritage is affirmed as an expression of the constitutional right to the collective identity of citizens who recognize themselves in the same nation.

The originator of this fundamental decision is the Court of Florence, which several times in the past has granted precautionary protection to the requests made by the Galleria dell’Accademia. The case concerns a famous publishing house which, in the absence of a license to use the image of Michelangelo’s David and without paying any fee for use, published the sculptural masterpiece on the cover of its own magazine, modified with the mechanism of the lenticular paper converting and then superimposed on the image of a model, a real person, all in an openly advertising key.

The Court of Florence – accepting the arguments supported by the District Attorney of the State of Florence – affirmed precisely that the image of cultural heritage is an expression of the cultural identity of the nation and of its historical memory to be protected pursuant to article 9 of the Constitution, founding value of our legal system which reads: «The Republic promotes the development of culture and scientific and technical research. It protects the landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of the nation”. According to the Court, as guaranteed, pursuant to art. 2 of the Constitution, the right to personal identity, understood as the right not to see one’s intellectual, political, social, religious, ideological and professional heritage altered and misrepresented, thus it is necessary to 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. The Court of Florence thus recognized that the unauthorized reproduction of the image of Michelangelo’s David caused financial damage, linked to the non-payment of the fee for the use of the asset (and calculated at 20 thousand euros as per the tariff of the Museum), but above all non-financial damage, quantified at 30 thousand euros since the publishing company with the lenticular technique «has insidiously and maliciously compared the image of Michelangelo’s David to that of a model, thus debasing, obscuring, mortifying, humiliating the high symbolic and identity value of the work of art and enslaving it for advertising and editorial promotion purposes”.

“Another great achievement. By now a principle has been affirmed that goes beyond the individual case», declares «with great satisfaction» Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.