Art and commercials: more protection is needed for the images of artworks.

The newspaper Italia Oggi publishes an article written by journalist Antonio Ranalli regarding the protection of images of artworks and their use for commercial purposes, in reference to the campaign promoted by the Italian Ministry of Tourism called “Open to Meraviglia.”

The article includes a contribution from Emanuele Sacchetto, who explains how, despite Italian law distinguishing between the use of images of copyrighted artworks for commercial and non-commercial purposes, judges have repeatedly condemned the unauthorized use of images depicting cultural assets. They have imposed significant monetary fines for both the failure to pay usage fees and the compensation for damages caused by the infringement of the cultural asset’s image.

On the same topic, the website Artribune.com also published an article written by Sacchetto, mentioning the ADV campaign created using the image of Botticelli’s Venus and the similar case of Michelangelo’s David used provocatively by the publishing house Edizioni Condé Nast S.p.A., which was ordered by the Court of Florence to pay damages to the Ministry of Culture for the improper use of the image.