THE ‘MUSEO NAZIONALE’ CASE

Museo Nazionale is a public national museum located in Rome which has its own permanent collection.
In 1970 the director of Museo Nazionale commissioned and acquired from Mr. Rossi (a contemporary
American artist) an installation to be located in the foyer of the museum.
Mr Rossi created an installation (titled ‘Pavement’) that consisted of covering the entire floor of the museum
foyer with bright coloured painted panels that went to create an ornamental design; a contract to purchase the
corpus mechanicum of the artwork was signed between the Museo Nazionale and Mr Rossi and Pavement
entered the permanent collection of the Museo Nazionale.
In 2020, during the forced closure of museums due to the pandemic, the video agency Colossum requested
permission from the director of Museo Nazionale to shoot videos and photos inside the museums to be placed
on their website (access to which was restricted to users paying a subscription). The museum gave its
permission, and the filming was done.
Mr. Rossi’s son was a subscriber of Colossum and saw the video shot inside the Museo Nazionale. The images
of Pavement had been edited: the video was uploaded in black and white and captured only 1/3 of the entire
installation; an inscription attributed the work to Mr. Rossi.
Mr. Rossi sued Colossum for copyright infringement.

GROUP A: Analyse the case considering economic rights (what kind of economic rights we take into
consideration in this case? What type of violation may have been raised and how can it be proven?)
GROUP B: Analyse the case considering moral rights (what kind of economic rights we take into
consideration in this case? What type of violation may have been raised and how can it be proven?).
BOTH GROUPS: What is the role of the Museo Nazionale in this case? Does it have any liability?