New article by Livia Solaro & H. Konstantin Jänicke: Two Pieces of One Puzzle: Italy and Germany Clash Over the Transnational Reach of Cultural Heritage Law Encroaching Upon the Public Domain (Harvard International Law Journal)

MACCH affiliated researchers Livia Solaro and Konstantin Jänicke recently published an analysis of two court rulings on reproduction of artworks in the famous Ravensburger puzzles. 

In November 2022, an Italian court ordered Ravensburger, a German manufacturer of toys and games, to stop selling puzzles depicting Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.” The original artwork is currently held by the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia, which, in 2019, sued the German company for failing to comply with Italian cultural heritage law. This law requires prior authorization and the payment of a fee to reproduce artworks from Italian public collections. Ravensburger refused to pay fees on products sold outside the Italian territory. After the Italian court ruled in favor of the museum, Ravensburger decided to bring the fight to its home country, initiating proceedings before a German court. In March 2024, the Landgericht Stuttgart sanctioned the German company’s right to freely use the image outside of the Italian territory. 

The following parallel analysis of these two rulings highlights important limits to the protection of cultural heritage, its complex relationship with intellectual property law, and the pressing need for harmonization in this field. 

This publication is part of the project PRICELESS.