New models of Public-private Partnership in Cultural Heritage Sector: Sponsorships between Models and Traps

Nowadays the cooperation between industry and culture is a well-known practice in several countries. However, in Italy the number of initiatives is still insufficient related to its cultural heritage dimension. Italy presents the higher number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and also over the 60% of world's cultural heritage. This huge quantity of heritage is an element that certainly point out the national identity and it contributes to the collective daily-life quality. Also the ownership of the Italian cultural heritage is collective or public, and due to the dimension of the phenomenon it is hard to guarantee a proper and comprehensive conservation. Facing this missing the contribution of public-private partnership in cultural sector must be improved, to promote - and sometimes assure - the heritage safeguarding and conservation. This paper will explore the experiences of Mecenatismo, or cultural patronage, and Sponsorship as successful or questionable application cases.