Museum jobsworths threaten Italian takeaway for using Michelangelo's David to sell ice cream

Museum jobsworths have threatened an Italian takeaway with legal action after the businesses used Michelangelo's David statue to advertise ice cream.

Andreina Contessa, the director Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, is launching action against the unauthorised exploitation of the marble artwork, one of the most recognisable masterpieces in Western art.

Among the most eyebrow-raising recent targets is a takeaway in Florence's historic centre.

The small business had displayed a poster depicting David tucking into an ice cream beneath the slogan: "Feeling hot? Ice cream at 1."

"The cease and desist letter has already been sent. It is a deterrent that usually works," Ms Contessa told The Times.

The 17-foot marble sculpture attracts millions of visitors every year, and its likeness routinely appears on everything from aprons to souvenir figurines hawked across the city.

Ms Contessa has claimed that appropriations are exploiting of a cornerstone of Western identity.

"It is precisely because the image belongs to everyone that it cannot be used for other purposes, especially not for commercial, advertising or political purposes," she said.

Italy's cultural heritage code limits the free use of state-owned artworks to study, research and cultural promotion.

But under EU copyright law, image rights lapse 70 years after an artist's death - a threshold Michelangelo passed some five centuries ago.

The heritage code is a power that few other European nations can use - and do - so aggressively.

In 2023, the nation's Culture Ministry started imposing tariffs on any authorised commercial reproduction of heritage assets in state ownership.

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Since taking charge roughly a year ago, Ms Contessa has sent off around a dozen cease-and-desist letters, granting recipients just five days to comply.

Her targets have ranged from a drainage services tanker bearing David's likeness, to a commercial van with the statue emblazoned across its bodywork - the latter receiving its warning letter on Monday.

The consequences for businesses who fall foul of the rules can be severe.

In 2023, Conde Nast was ordered to pay €50,000 (£42,725) after placing an image of David on the cover of GQ Italia, with the court ruling that the publisher had harmed Italy's "national cultural identity".

But Giuliano Volpe, an archaeology professor at Bari University and a former adviser to the culture ministry, has argued that businesses in the country's struggling cultural and creative sectors ought to be free to harness such marketing opportunities.

"It must be a right for everyone. It shouldn't be left to the director of a museum to decide," he told The Times.

Ms Contessa has vowed to pursue as many cases as her modest legal team can manage.

"What we really need is a centralised team of battle-hardened lawyers that dedicate their time to this issue alone," she said.

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