David image must be authorized: Academy Gallery wins lawsuit against publishing house

The use of the image of Michelangelo’s David must be authorized, all the more so if the use is for advertising purposes: the Court of Florence ruled this today, recognizing the existence of the right to the image of cultural goods and agreeing with the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence , which won its case against a publishing house that had used the image of Michelangelo’s masterpiece without asking for authorization. This is the first ruling of its kind, because never before has a court affirmed the existence of the right to the image of cultural property as an expression of the constitutional right to the collective identity of citizens who identify with the same nation.

The publishing house in question had published the image of David on one of its covers by superimposing it over that of a model for advertising purposes, but without granting permission for use and without having paid royalties for the use. According to the Court of Florence, the unauthorized use resulted in a double damage to the museum. The first is patrimonial since the use fee for the asset was not paid: the amount of the damage was calculated at 20,000 euros, as per the museum’s fee schedule for similar uses. The second damage, on the other hand, is non-pecuniary in nature and was quantified at 30.000 euros: with the technique of superimposition, in fact, the publishing house “insidiously and maliciously juxtaposed the image of Michelangelo’s David with that of a model, thus debasing, obfuscating, mortifying, and humiliating the high symbolic and identity value of the work of art and enslaving it for advertising and editorial promotion purposes,” the judgment reads. According to the court, in fact, if the right to personal identity (to be understood as the right not to have one’s intellectual, political, social, religious, ideological and professional heritage altered and misrepresented) must be guaranteed, according to Article 2 of the Constitution, in the same way, according to Article 9, the right to the collective identity of citizens who recognize themselves as belonging to the same nation must be guaranteed.

Exults Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano: “I appreciate the ruling of the Court of Florence on Michelangelo’s David, which recognizes the principle of an image right for cultural heritage. In general, without going into the details of the device that I do not know, it must be said that the use for commercial purposes for cultural goods must be paid while it must be free for images for educational and study purposes. It is comforting that the judges think like the Ministry of Culture.”

David image must be authorized: Academy Gallery wins lawsuit against publishing house

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