How the Milan Duomo’s old sculptures are getting a new life with Adopt a Statue programme

The programme recruits donors – companies or individuals – to fund the restoration of a statue under a loan agreement that allows it to occasionally be displayed outside the Duomo.

“Statues that would otherwise remain in our deposits are restored and brought back to their original beauty,” says Elisa Mantia, the programme’s project manager. “In that way, they can continue to tell the story of the Duomo even in places that are far from the monument.”

These agreements are in some cases granted for an initial one-year term and may be renewed. The initiative follows previous fundraising campaigns in which donors could adopt gargoyles or spires in exchange for inclusion in the Duomo’s donor register, where contributors’ names are recorded as part of the cathedral’s long history of support.