Author Archives: Chiara Gallo

Avatar photo

About Chiara Gallo

Chiara Gallo is a graduate from the Art, Business and Law LLM at Queen Mary University of London and a law graduate from Maastricht University (NL). She works as a paralegal within the Art & Luxury Team at Wedlake Bell in London. She has a particular interest in topics concerning cultural heritage and intellectual property rights.

The Second Chapter of the Vitruvian Man Dispute and Other Developments in the Italian Cultural Heritage Framework

Posted on: June 24, 2024 by Chiara Gallo

Over a year and a half ago, the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiC) won the dispute brought in front of the Venice Civil Court concerning the Vitruvian Man. In that instance, the Italian court held that the Vitruvian Man, an artwork created by Leonardo da Vinci around 1490, belonged to Italian Cultural Heritage and, as […]

Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse Has Entered the Public Domain: The End of a Copyrighted Era

Posted on: February 5, 2024 by Chiara Gallo

When the clock struck midnight on the first day of 2024, one of the most anticipated Public Domain Days was finally reached and the first iteration of Mickey Mouse was released into the public domain in the US. This meant that, after 95 years and several changes in the US copyright regime, the first ever […]

The Vitruvian Man highlights puzzling elements of Italian cultural heritage laws

Posted on: April 24, 2023 by Chiara Gallo

The ‘Art Collection’ series of jigsaw puzzles by Ravensburger is an ever popular pastime and features many of the world’s most renowned masterpieces, from the likes of Haring and Klimt to Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci. In fact, Ravensburger’s recent reproduction of Da Vinci’s Uomo Vitruviano as one of its jigsaws has sparked a legal […]

The perpetual copyright protection of Italian cultural heritage: bypassing the public domain

Posted on: December 2, 2022 by Chiara Gallo

In recent weeks, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus appeared on the headlines of some of the most important news outlets, due to the allegedly ‘unauthorised’ commercial use of the famous masterpiece. The fashion house Jean Paul Gaultier is facing a suit for damages that could exceed £88,000 (€100,000) brought by the Uffizi, the oldest Florentine museum, […]