A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo's David raises questions about freedom of expression

[Coventina]

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Michelangelo’s David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue’s religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets and other souvenirs sold around Florence focusing on David’s genitalia.

The Galleria dell’Accademia’s director, Cecilie Hollberg, has positioned herself as David’s defender since her arrival at the museum in 2015, taking swift aim at those profiteering from his image, often in ways she finds “debasing.”

In that way, she is a bit of a David herself against the Goliath of unfettered capitalism with its army of street vendors and souvenir shop operators hawking aprons of the statue’s nude figure, T-shirts of it engaged in obscene gestures, and ubiquitous figurines, often in Pop Art neon.

At Hollberg’s behest, the state’s attorney office in Florence has launched a series of court cases invoking Italy’s landmark cultural heritage code, which protects artistic treasures from disparaging and unauthorized commercial use. The Accademia has won hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars) in damages since 2017, Hollberg said.

https://apnews.com/article/michelangelo-david-statue-italy-protection-heritage-3fa1b7185fea36003e064fa6e2c309fd

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As someone who spent a month in Florence last summer, I remember seeing all of those extremely tacky things.
They are extremely tiresome, and on view to everyone. You simply cannot avoid them, which I find to be in poor taste.
However, I think the Larry Flynt case in the US would guarantee that such things fall under Freedom of Speech.
Italy has different laws, though, obviously....
And maybe they shouldn't be on public view? (I'm speaking here of things like magnets that are just his junk, not the full figure.)

[debm55]

1. TY Coventina. I agree with you on not having the magnets and such on display.

[grumpyduck]

2. IMHO, its significance is not being diminished.

Any more than any other major work of art. The only thing diminishing is the mentality of the people who want to make a quick buck and of those who buy this stuff.

[lame54]

3. David's Junk...

Good band name

[maxsolomon]

4. Sorry, debasement is the coin of the realm.

Good luck stemming the tide, Cultural Heritage Code.

[Aristus]

5. There is nothing new about this, and likely no way to ever end it, human nature being what it is.

Hell, monks used to doodle dick pics in the margins of the Bibles they were illustrating. A thousand years ago. There's nothing new under the sun. Voltaire wrote that three hundred years ago, and it wasn't new when he said it.

[Demovictory9]

6. When i was in college in calif, on sale wad a poster of this statue

Taken from a kneeling level in front so that his junk was featured. Big poster fir the dorm walls. That sculpture brings out the immaturity of people