Are the Uffizi banning photos from bloggers and influencers? No, the news is completely unfounded

In the last few hours, there has been alarm among bloggers, influencers and, more generally, social media users about an article that came out in the Florentine Corriere and was later taken up by several newspapers, according to which the Uffizi Galleries would prohibit bloggers and influencers from disseminating online photographs of works in the collection. It all stemmed from the protest of a Florentine influencer and tour guide, sarasflorence, who, on her Instagram channel, raised the case, which later turned out to be completely unfounded: “the Uffizi prohibits the dissemination of art on social media,” the young woman wrote. “I have been doing popularization on social for years, my goal has always been to make people rediscover museums, places and works of art. Schmidt director of the Uffizi wants to prevent us from doing that. Prohibiting the creation of content inside and outside the museum!”

The influencer, born Sara Innocenti, then told the Florentine Courier that “there was a meeting between director Eike Schmidt and some representatives of the tour guides where it was pointed out that from now on it was necessary to pay a monthly fee for the use via social or internet of images of the works of the collection.” Innocenti then referred to the famous Chiara Ferragni case: “First you invite Chiara Ferragni to take pictures in the gallery, so she is allowed, and then you charge me who do cultural promotion? But why?” (in fact, as is well known, the exact opposite happened, that is, it was Vogue Hong Kong that paid the Uffizi for Chiara Ferragni’s service, and not vice versa).

However, as anyone who works in the field of online cultural communication should know very well, the Cultural Heritage Code (Legislative Decree 42 of 2004), in paragraph 3-bis of Article 108 (introduced in 2014), stipulates that the reproduction by any means of works of state collections is free if the images are disseminated, without profit, “for purposes of study, research, free manifestation of thought or creative expression, promotion of the knowledge of cultural heritage.” In short: non-profit dissemination is always free, and for those who disseminate without making a profit, no one has ever asked for anything nor will ever ask for anything, because it would be against the law (as well as not very much in line with today’s canons of web-based communication). And of course in the use of images of state museums, such as the Uffizi, absolutely nothing has changed in recent hours.

So, since nonprofit disclosure is always free by law, where is the problem? It is the Uffizi themselves who explain this in a press note: “a recent circular of the Ministry of Culture,” the museum lets it be known, “clarifies beyond a shadow of a doubt that the intellectual property of the works housed in museums must be protected, and the use of images for virtual tours by professionally qualified guides subject to a fee.” In short: the fee that has been proposed by the Uffizi relates only to the use of images to promote their profession, and not to dissemination, much less sporadic dissemination (in fact, the Corriere article refers to a communication from the management according to which “if the use of images is continuous and not sporadic, a flat fee will be required”). Moreover, this is not new news because it all goes back to January, when the Uffizi issued to Florentine guides a regulation for the use of images of Uffizi assets in “webinars/virtual tours” carried out on online platforms, in which the guides were informed that the museum was considering “the possibility of applying a symbolic fee for the issuance of authorization” to use the images. And it was also in January that the rules for webinars/virtual tours were published on the Uffizi’s website, where the fees are also indicated (for example, tour guides pay 15 euros for a tour of up to 100 participants, while the fee rises to 50 euros if the tour is organized by an agency or tour operator, and so on in increments based on the number of participants).

The Florentine museum therefore explains that the news that has spread in recent hours is without foundation and that “there is no levy. There is, instead, a state law, dating back to 1993, then updated in the Cultural Heritage Code of 2004 and finally updated in 2014, that establishes how the use of images of the works kept in museums can be free if carried out for private, scientific, or news purposes, while it must instead be subject to a fee if it is carried out for commercial purposes. This is, of course, the case if we are talking about images used by guides in courses offered online in the exercise of their profession; it is also so in the case of individuals who promote, on social networks, the sale of objects depicting, thus using, such images; it is not at all for those who, keeping a social page, a blog, or carrying out other similar activities on the web, make personal, or occasional, or scientific, or news use of them, and in any case not for profit.”

The ministerial circular, from mid-April, signed by the director general of museums, Massimo Osanna, concerns precisely the “Use of images of goods in consignment to museum institutions for the creation and dissemination through an online platform of virtual tours by personnel qualified to the profession of tourist guide that do not involve the exclusive use of spaces and/or professional filming.” The document states, “The continuation of the state of pandemic emergency has seen [...] a multiplication of requests for the use of museums by means of online virtual tours, in relation to which it is intended to provide some implementation guidelines, circumscribing the application methods, in order to standardize their operation throughout the country.” The circular establishes certain obligations for virtual tours, namely: they must not exhaust themselves in “mere promotional initiatives, nor do they refer, even indirectly, to the sale of products or services, of any kind or to further commercial/promotional initiatives of any kind,” and that “they must not be publicized or disseminated through special press releases or through materials bearing the official logo of the institutes or the ministry.” The reproduction of cultural property through virtual tours, the ministerial circular explains, is subject to the payment of concession fees, which corresponds to a percentage of the full ticket cost for each participant.

In short, bloggers and influencers can rest assured: no one will prohibit the free reproduction for dissemination purposes of cultural assets of the Uffizi or any other state museum.

Pictured: Chiara Ferragni at the Uffizi.

Are the Uffizi banning photos from bloggers and influencers? No, the news is completely unfounded

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.