Italy's cultural wealth remains invisible in public accounts

Key facts

• Italy's cultural heritage is vastly undervalued in public accounts, with Pompeii valued at €48.9 million instead of an estimated €11.7 billion.
• The State General Accounting Office proposed a new valuation methodology based on discounted cash flows at a 1.5% discount rate.
• A pilot study on four sites (Pompeii, Uffizi, Galleria Borghese, Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este) revealed a combined real value of over €25 billion.
• The ITAS 4 standard for cultural heritage accounting was adopted in June 2024 as part of Italy's accrual accounting reform.
• The reform is part of Italy's convergence to EU accrual accounting standards under PNRR reform 1.15.
• Proper valuation could reduce net debt, improve access to EIB financing, and increase indirect tax revenues.
• The cultural and creative sector generates €112 billion in direct value added and €303 billion including induced effects (16.6% of GDP).
• The article was written by Angelo Argento for Artribune.