Key Points
The Galleria dellAccademias director, Cecilie Hollberg, has positioned herself as Davids defender since her arrival at the museum in 2015, taking swift aim at those profiteering from his image, often in ways she finds debasing..
At Hollbergs behest, the states attorney office in Florence has launched a series of court cases invoking Italys landmark cultural heritage code, which protects artistic treasures from disparaging and unauthorized commercial use..
Court cases have debated whether Italy's law violates a 2019 European Union directive stating that any artwork no longer protected by copyright falls into the public domain, meaning that everybody should be free to make, use and share copies of that work..
The EU Commission has not addressed the issue, but a spokesman told the AP that it is currently checking conformity of the national laws implementing the copyright directive and would look at whether Italys cultural heritage code interferes with its application..
Italys cultural heritage code in its current form has been on the books since 2004, and while Hollbergs cases were not the first, they have represented an acceleration, experts said..
