New technologies and the collective enjoyment of art: the reproduction of the Egyptian tombs of Pashedu and Tutankhamun by an Italian master and legal issues related to their exploitation.

Science and new technologies can offer an outstanding contribution to enhancing the preservation and enjoyment of cultural heritage. Geographical and temporal distances can easily be overcome in many different ways by offering new opportunities for travel through time and space. Faithful reproductions of pieces of artworks that cannot be detached from their original sites are now widely available. In the specific case considered in this paper, digital technology combined with craftsmanship, have resulted in to two unique mobile reproductions of the Egyptian tombs of Pashedu and Tutankhamun by an Italian master craftsman from Verona. Legal issues surrounding the replicas of the tombs of Pashedu and Tutankhamun will be taken into consideration, with particular regard both to the legal regime governing the exploitation of digital images and exact replicas of archaeological objects under Egyptian law and to the patent and trademark laws protecting intellectual property rights resulting from the combination of digital reproductions of artworks along with the special know-how used to realise the material support that have established these tombs as unique artefacts. The core legal issue that finally comes to the attention of the lawyer concerns the extension of the right held by the Egyptian State over reproductions of archaeological sites and objects as it results from the amended text of art. 36 of the Egyptian Antiquities’ Protection Law.