Milan's Duplicate Image Problem: The Key Decisions Ahead for a City Rebuilding Its Visual Identity

The deadline is closing in. With the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony scheduled for February 6, city planners, brand managers and cultural institutions along the Corso Como corridor are confronting a problem that has quietly accumulated for years: a sprawling inventory of duplicated, recycled and legally ambiguous images plastered across tourism campaigns, municipal websites and commercial hoardings that no longer accurately represent the city they are supposed to sell.

The issue landed formally on the agenda of the Camera di Commercio di Milano Monza Brianza Lodi earlier this spring, when an internal working group flagged that overlapping image licences across at least three major promotional programs — including the city's official Vivi Milano portal and the Expo legacy communications archive — had produced hundreds of duplicate photographs circulating simultaneously under different rights agreements. The practical consequences range from legal exposure over expired licences to the simpler, more embarrassing problem of global media publishing the same aerial shot of the Duomo that appeared in 2019 tourism brochures.

Why This Moment Matters

Milan's image economy is not trivial. The fashion and design sector generates roughly 20 percent of Italy's total export value in creative industries, and the city's visual branding is inseparable from that commercial weight. The Salone del Mobile, held annually at the Fiera Milano complex in Rho, drew more than 360,000 visitors in April 2025 according to the fair's published figures — each one arriving with expectations shaped partly by promotional imagery. When that imagery is stale, duplicated or legally uncertain, the reputational cost compounds.

The Olympics factor sharpens everything. The Milan-Cortina organising committee, known as Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, has built a substantial visual identity program, but it operates alongside, not instead of, the existing municipal and regional promotional machinery. Lombardy's centre-right regional government and Mayor Beppe Sala's centre-left city administration have maintained an arm's-length working relationship at best, and the absence of a single coordinating image authority has allowed duplication to flourish in the gap between their respective communications offices.

In the Porta Nuova district, where the Unicredit Tower and the Bosco Verticale have become the default shorthand for modern Milan in every international feature published since 2015, the problem is most visible. Property developers, the city's tourism board and at least two separate regional agencies all hold licensing agreements for photographs of the same streets, the same facades, the same rooftop terraces. Nobody has been the single point of clearance.

The Decisions That Cannot Wait

Three choices now sit in front of the institutions involved. First, whether to consolidate image rights under a single municipal licensing framework — a model that cities such as Amsterdam have pursued through their official city marketing bodies. Second, whether to commission a fresh photographic archive specifically for the Olympics period, which industry estimates suggest would cost between €400,000 and €700,000 for a production of sufficient scope. Third, whether to establish clear sunset dates for existing licences, forcing a systematic audit before December 2026.

The Brera Design District, which manages its own promotional output independently of both the city and the region, has already begun an internal review of its image library, according to a statement published on its website in May 2026. No timeline for completion was given.

For smaller operators — the boutique hotels along Via Manzoni, the showrooms clustered around Via Durini — the practical advice from intellectual property specialists is straightforward: audit what you are actually licensed to use before the Olympic press corps arrives and starts asking questions. February is not far. The city's visual story needs to be told once, clearly, and with paperwork to match. Right now, too much of it is being told in duplicate.