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An Illinois-based gunmaker has incurred the wrath of the Italian government after using Michelangelo's famous sculpture of the Biblical hero David in an advertisement for one of its rifles.
The advertisement for Armalite's AR-501A shows David holding the gun in lieu of his famous slingshot. The ad's tagline reads "AR-501A: A Work of Art". The ad also alters the statue itself, covering up David's genitalia with a leaf. The real statue makes no such concession to modesty.
Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini urged the company to withdraw the advertisement after images of it appeared on several Italian media websites over the weekend. Franceschini tweeted "The image of David, armed, offends and infringes the law. We will take action against the American company so that it immediately withdraws its campaign."
The Italian government claims that it has the copyright to all commercial uses of the marble masterpiece, which was created between 1501 and 1504 and resides in the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The gallery's director, Angelo Tartuferi, told Repubblica newspaper "The law says that the aesthetic value of the work cannot be distorted. In this case, not only is the choice in bad taste but also completely illegal."
Armalite has not made any public comment on the controversy.
Of course, what they're actually bent out of shape about is that it's an eeeeeeeevvvviiiiilll gun that's involved. They may not say that out loud, but there's no doubt that's what has them tuned up about this. I don't know anything about Italian copyright law, but I would certainly argue that they have not done enough to defend it over the years, and thus have given up their copyright and David is in the public domain now.
They didn't throw a hissy about this:
Or this:
Nor do they complain about these:
So I don't think that they really have a leg to stand on if this were to go to court, and my bet is that the government's lawyers right now are telling this guy to STFU.
The fig leaf thing is kinda funny, but thinking about it, that could very well be a legal "out" as well: Armalite can say that their picture isn't David because the real David has his junk out there for all the world to see.
Anyway, I think it's funny that they're getting themselves all twisted up over a gun. Funny.
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