Historic houses, from heritage to economic resource with effective tools. Towards the extended Art Bonus

Centuries of relationship between architecture and landscape. Between city and countryside. Between family memory and collective history. Historic Italian dwellings hold archives, gardens, collections, decorative expressions, agricultural appurtenances. They produce wealth in many forms. Suffice it to say that the network of properties - from Renaissance villas to medieval farmhouses - generates more than 1.9 billion euros in annual investments in restoration and attracts more than 35 million visitors in 2024, according to data presented at the annual assembly of the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane (ADSI). However, a fragmented regulatory framework is preventing the sector from expressing its full economic potential, without considering the further scope for action that could open up if only some of the tax measures under discussion were to finally come to fruition.

The function performed by historical residences in Italia is written in numbers. There are about 46,000 private cultural assets distributed throughout the country, almost 30% in municipalities under 5,000 inhabitants, where they act as cultural and identity strongholds. The 60% generate direct value through activities in the tourism, culture and agriculture sectors, also contributing to youth employment. Visits reach important quotas of tourists and the curious thanks also to the more than 20 thousand entities that promote events and openings to the public. Son the maintenance front, 85% of interventions are self-financed, with an average expenditure of more than 50,000 euro per asset per year. And that is not all. Because omore than ten thousand residences are ready to expand their activities in the presence of a more favourable regulatory environment.

"Their full specificity lies in the fact that they continue to live," explained ADSI president Maria Pace Odescalchi to the packed audience at Rome's Teatro Argentina. "They are not goods removed from time but immersed in time. This is why they are exposed to deterioration. To the cost of maintenance, to the complexity of management, to the need for continuous choices and actions. Private cultural heritage does not only produce beauty. And this, we are keen to say, produces civic resilience in the territories, appreciated and present. It activates skills that include our excellence, restorers and craftsmen, gardeners, archivists, technicians, scholars". In many contexts, especially outside large urban centres, a historic home "is and one of the few places capable of giving recognition and perspective and an entire community. Historic houses are the largest and most widespread museum in Italia'

The institutional figures present, from the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida to the Guardasigilli Carlo Nordio, signalled a cross-departmental interest. "Culture in Italia must increasingly be considered not only as an identity heritage, but also as an economic and productive lever capable of generating value and development," was Nordio's exhortation. A helping hand may come concretely from the Budget Law. Acting on deductions according to public finance margins, as explained by Deputy Minister for the Economy Maurizio Leo. "If one wants to reason about leaving the 75,000 euro ceiling for buildings of historical, artistic and archaeological interest or alternatively raising the 19% percentage, this can be a path, provided the resources are found". At the centre of the agenda is then the extension of the Art Bonus - a tax credit mechanism currently reserved for donors supporting public cultural institutions - to private property managed by foundations or third sector entities. This is the meaning of the bill with former minister Maurizio Lupi as first signatory, which is now close to approval in the Chamber of Deputies. "We have found the coverage for the three years indicated in the regulation after several interlocutions with the State General Accounting Office," anticipates the leader of Noi Moderati. "In the month of May the yes could arrive and then pass definitively by the end of the year".

In total, the association has around 4,500 members and will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. The assembly was also an opportunity to award the winners of the seventh edition of the ADSI Thesis Prize, aimed at young researchers studying private cultural heritage. The first prize went to architects Elena Rizzico and Alessandro Piacentini of the Milan Polytechnic for their study on Palazzo Franco in Vicenza. The second was awarded to architect Nicola Gigli for his research on rural architecture in the Reggio Emilia Apennines, while the third went to Concetta Sidoti Abate of the University of Palermo for her analysis of Villa Piccolo in Calanovella.