Скачать или смотреть Funding museums through digital copies of art masterpieces - AP explains

(30 Nov 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Milan - 24 November 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Colleen Barry, The Associated Press: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 2 TO 7++
"The last time a Leonardo da Vinci portrait went on the market, it sold for 450 million dollars. Behind me, there's a digital reproduction of a Leonardo da Vinci that is being sold for a mere 250,000 euros. This is an operation by an Italian company that is working with Italian museums to make digital reproductions in one-to-one scale of some of Italy's most famous masterpieces and they're being sold through galleries. And half of the proceeds are going back to the museums to help support their operations. This is a passion project by a Danish entrepreneur who is trying to help Italian cultural institutions support themselves while also creating unique objects that can be bought by collectors."
2. Pan left of room in offices of Save the Artistic Heritage in Milan, where some digital copies of famous paintings are on display
3. Wide of a digital copy of “Head of a Young Lady” by Amedeo Modigliani
4. Tilt down of digital copy of “Head of a Young Lady”
5. Wide of digital copy of Leonardo’s “The Lady with Dishevelled Hair”
6. Pan left from digital copies of Hayez’s “The Kiss” to Botticelli’s “The Madonna of the Pavilion”
7. Tilt up of digital copy of “The Madonna of the Pavilion” by Botticelli
STORYLINE:
The last person to get their hands on a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci shelled out more than $450 million at auction.

Now, Italian cultural officials are making it possible to purchase a limited edition, certified digital copy of the Renaissance genius’ “Lady with Disheveled Hair’’ for roughly the price of a Lamborghini.

The Italian nonprofit Save the Artistic Heritage with its technical partner Cinello are providing well-heeled collectors the possibility of owning a literal projection of original Italian masterpieces, sized and framed to match the museum experience.

Participating museums sign a certificate of authenticity, and in return receive 50% of the profits.

The revenue sharing is integral to the project, which aims to help cash-strapped museums access new income streams, and a key part of the sales pitch, according to John Blem, the Italian-born Danish entrepreneur who founded the initiative.

Over the last two years, Save the Artistic Heritage has contributed 300,000 euros ($347,000) to its Italian museum partners, with prices of the digital masterpieces ranging from 30,000 euros to 300,000 euros.

Contributing to the value, each is sold in a limited series of nine, representing the conventional number of statues that can be cast from a single mold and still be considered original.

The catalog of some 250 Italian artworks comes from about 10 Italian museums and foundations, including the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the Capodimonte in Naples and the Pilotta in Parma, which owns Leonardo's unfinished painting on wood of a woman with windblown hair, which sold for 250,000 euros (nearly $290,000).

Blem and a partner are in the process of setting up a similar nonprofit in the United States that is expected to launch next year.

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