The Uffizi Gallery earns only € 70,000 from Michelangelo NFT which was sold for € 240,000

The sale of an NFT based on Michelangelo’s famous painting Doni Tondo (1505-06) earned € 240,000 last year at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence € 70,000, a figure recently revealed by the museum. The work was characterized by a Milan-based company called Cinello as part of a five-year agreement that should have resulted in the production of 40 digital works. The development is part of an ongoing debate in Italy on ownership and copyright issues related to major masterpieces placed in national collections.

The Uffizi signed the agreement to create DAWs (encrypted digital artworks) with Cinello in 2016. “The collaboration with Cinello lasted for five years and expired in December 2021. During this time, Cinello had the right to create NFTs of the works that was part of the agreement; just that Tondo, however, was made, says a Uffizi spokesman. The Cinello website states: “For each DAW, an NFT token is created on Blockchain; this confirms ownership of the work.” The Cinello website says: “For every DAW, an NFT token is created on Blockchain, this confirms the ownership of the work.”

The spokesman adds that the contract with Cinello states that “revenues due to the reproduction of the image are divided in two between the company and the museum; Cinello copy [made] about € 140,000 [on the €240,000 sale]so the Uffizi received € 70,000 [along with Cinello]”The rest, € 100,000, went on” production costs “according to Artribune website; Cinello did not respond to a request for comment regarding these sums. according to Vogon today the site was Michelangelo NFT bought by a collector in Rome.

However, the move has sparked concerns about whether larger works are “for sale”. An article in the Italian newspaper The Republic last month asked: “Who owns Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo? …. who has the legal rights related to the work? If the buyer ever decides to exhibit it, can he do so without permission from the Uffizi? Basically: do we not risk losing control of our heritage at a time when we are increasingly moving towards the metaverse? ” The newspaper adds that Italian ministers have also raised concerns about the agreement with Cinello.

In a lengthy statement, the Uffizi said: “Basically: we do not risk losing control of our heritage … In reality, [existing laws] provide punctual and precise answers to these questions long before the invention of the technology in question, ie the Ronchey Act of 1994, and again the Urbani Code of 2004 … the rights [linked to the works] is in no way alienated, the contractor has no right to use the images given for exhibitions or other unauthorized use, and the assets remain in the hands of the Italian Republic. “

Museums around the world are trying to make money on the back of NFTs. The British Museum (BM) in London has recently sold NFTs by JMW Turner and Hokusai works taken from the collection, in collaboration with the French start-up LaCollection.io. The royalty agreement between LaCollection.io and the British Museum remains confidential.

Earlier this year, the Uffizi, Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta in Parma and Pinacoteca di Brera and Biblioteca Ambrosiana, both in Milan, sold digital facsimiles of works by Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci at Unit London Gallery.

UPDATE: Uffizi spokesman says: “The museum sold nothing but the use of the image – DAW (digital artwork), sale of the relative piece, is everything [down to] Cinello. It is untrue to say that the museum sold the Tondo copy. “

UPDATE (June 14): A spokesman for Cinello says: “We want to specify that Cinello does not sell NFTs, but DAW® (Digital Artwork). Ours is a patented technology (registered in Italy, China, USA and Europe) which enables the digitization of works of art from our partner museums to provide new sources of income. “

He adds: “Cinello does not have exclusive rights with public museums. All rights to the artwork remain with the museum that owns the original. We are creating a new right related to our patent, which is DAW®. The collector who buys the DAW. ® by contract can not “exhibit it in public exhibitions, the work can be used for private use. DAW® is designed precisely to maintain control (which remains in the hands of Cinello and the partner museums) and not to spread the legacy of the digital world.”