Material / Image Research Lab (MIRL)

The Guardian reports that Italy’s state government now asserts it is the true owner of Michelangelo’s iconic sculpture rather than the city of Florence. Lawyers hired by the state have said they’ve found archival proof that the work’s ownership passed to the state when it absorbed the Florentine Republic in the nineteenth century. The mayor of Florence has refuted this claim with archival evidence of his own, arguing that control over the Palazzo Vecchio and its contents — including David, which used to stand outside the Palazzo’s entrance — remained with the Tuscan city.