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Digitally projected art masterpieces are bringing priceless artworks into the home—and the money raised is being used to support museums and galleries. If you’ve always dreamed of hanging a painting by Leonardo or Michelangelo in your home, purchasing a certified digital copy could be just what you need.
The Italian non-profit Save the Artistic Heritage, with its technical partner Cinello, is providing collectors the possibility of owning a projection of original Italian masterpieces, sized and framed to match the museum experience.
“The idea behind this was to, we don’t just want to sell a piece of technology, we want to actually sell a piece of artwork. It might sound easy, but it’s not, we learned because there are so many rules within the artwork that is completely different from what you do if you just need to create some software or some technical product,” says John Blem, the Italian-born Danish entrepreneur behind the initiative.
By purchasing one of the digital copies, the buyer obtains a certificate of authenticity also signed by the museum that owns the original work. The museum receives 50% of the profits.
“Yes, so this is actually the certification that you get, if you acquire one of these (digital copies),” explains Blem with the certificate in his hand. “So we are signing it and the museum direction is signing it, so this is actually showing you, you have the right loan of edition 3 out of 9 of this particular artwork.”
Only nine copies are made for each painting.
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, Blem said. 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.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.