Cultural heritage, the European accounting reform that opens up a market worth billions
by Silver Angel
A reform in Italian public budgets that the business world has largely ignored could open up one of the most significant markets of the next decade. It is called accrual accounting, it is imposed by Reform 1.15 of the NRP and the European convergence towards EPSAS standards, and it has a direct consequence: for the first time, Italy's cultural heritage assets will have to be entered in public balance sheets at their real economic value. Not as a symbol. As assets.
This is not an Italian discretionary choice. Directive 2011/85/EU, as amended by Directive 2024/1265/EU of 29 April 2024, requires all Member States to converge towards accrual-based financial accounting systems. IPSAS 45, effective as of 1 January 2025, included for the first time heritage assets among tangible fixed assets that can be measured using the Current Operational Value. Italia transposed this framework with the ITAS 4 standard, adopted by RGS Determination No. 176775 of 27 June 2024 and amended at the Steering Committee meetings of 29 July 2024, 27 January and 17 April 2025.
The operative point is the SeSD Thematic Note No. 155 of 30 June 2025 of the State General Accounting Office. The methodology discounts the net financial flows generated by the utilisation over a tendentially infinite horizon, with a rate of 1.5 per cent in line with Eurostat guidelines for Table 29 of the ESA 2010 National Accounts. The results change scale: Pompeii is worth 11.7 billion Euro, against 48.9 million recorded in the General Heritage Account. The Uffizi 11.6 billion against 2. The Borghese Gallery exceeds 1 billion. Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este reach 731 million despite negative direct revenues, thanks to indirect returns generated in the area. Four sites, over 25 billion in patrimonial value, invisible until yesterday. Italia has about 4,000 museums and over 2,000 archaeological sites. The overall revaluation would be measured in hundreds of billions.
What's changing for enterprises
What happens when a 48 million public asset becomes an 11 billion asset? The investment possibilities, the available guarantees, the potential markets change. An asset correctly valued according to accrual criteria becomes a credible basis for structured finance operations guaranteed by real assets. The concession model, already used for motorways and airports, could be extended to cultural enhancement. The EIB, through InvestEU, offers concessional financing that requires a credible asset base as a prerequisite. Proper accrual valorisation is exactly that basis. Cassa Depositi e Prestiti has the tools to become the pivot of this transformation.
On the insurance front, today many public assets are under-insured on symbolic values, with enormous financial risk in the event of calamitous events. A systematic revaluation opens up a market for specialised art and heritage policies on a scale never before explored in Italia. Lloyd's and AXA Art are already looking at this segment as a structural growth area.
