FLORENCE, Italy (CB) — Since 1504, Michelangelo's David has been a strong presence in Italian culture. And since 1504, there have been the dick jokes. The profiteering off the penis of Michelangelo's David has gone too far in the eyes of Galleria dell'Accademia's director, Cecilie Hollberg, who is taking up arms as the primary defender against David debasing.

Cecilie and other Italian curators feel that in this era of a quick buck, merchants and vendors' repeated junk jokes have diminished the religious and political significance of Michelangelo's masterpiece. And they are fighting back.

The state attorney office in Florence has launched a series of court cases invoking Italy's landmark cultural heritage code. This code protects artistic treasures from disparaging and unauthorized commercial use and is light on language surrounding penis parody. The invocation has been largely successful, netting hundreds of thousands of euros since 2017.

However, critics like art market lawyer Thomas C. Danziger worry about the limit this places on artistic expression, stating, "It raises not just legal issues, but also philosophical issues. What does cultural patrimony mean? How much of a stranglehold do you want to give institutions over ideas and images..." Danziger went on to add, "Plus, dicks are funny. I have a statue of David apron I break out for dinner parties, and it always gets a big laugh."

The EU Commission has not addressed the issue, but a spokesman told the AP that it is currently checking "conformity of the national laws implementing the copyright directive" and "When you think about the height of the people of the time, it is actually a pretty average size, so I don't see what is so funny."

AP Story