The report by the European Art Assets Observatory attempts to untangle one of the key challenges facing businesses and ESG strategies: transforming Art and Culture from virtuous parallel activities into measurable and reportable infrastructures
For years, the relationship between art and business has lived with a structural contradiction: companies invest in culture, yet rarely succeed in demonstrating its value. Corporate collections, historical archives, corporate foundations, company museums, cultural sponsorships, artistic projects and philanthropic initiatives are often framed as reputational or narrative tools, while remaining on the margins of governance systems, reporting practices and measurement frameworks.
The issue, therefore, is less cultural than methodological. In recent months, this topic has returned to the center of the debate thanks to an article by Marilena Pirrelli in Il Sole 24 Ore, which brought renewed attention to a question that is destined to become increasingly strategic: how to measure the artistic and cultural value generated by companies.
The answer comes from a research effort that could represent a turning point for the entire sector and beyond.
The University of Pavia attempts to build a shared language
The report produced by the European Art Assets Observatory at the University of Pavia, developed through an initiative promoted by the Institute for Transformative Innovation & Research (ITIR), directed by Stefano Denicolai, in partnership with Deloitte Private, Arte Generali, and Banca Generali, titled CORPORATE CULTURAL & ART ASSETS FOR A SUSTAINABLE IMPACT, with the subtitle Measuring Artistic and Cultural Value within ESG Strategies, explores the role of Corporate Cultural & Art Assets (CCAAs) within corporate sustainability strategies, addressing both conceptual and operational dimensions.
The research analyzed more than 300 major European companies selected from the top 50 by revenue across six countries: Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The main finding emerges clearly: culture exists within organizations, but it is rarely managed as a strategic asset.
• only 36% of the companies analyzed own, manage, or actively interact with Corporate Cultural & Art Assets (CCAAs);
• Italy represents the most virtuous case with 56%, outperforming France (46%) and Germany (40%);
• only 34% mention these assets in sustainability reports;
• around 3% declare a specific monetary value for their cultural assets;
• only 24 companies report investments related to CCAAs within their financial disclosures.
In short, there is a widespread artistic and cultural heritage embedded within Europe’s productive fabric, yet it remains largely invisible to measurement systems and ESG strategies.
Why Art and Culture still struggle to enter ESG strategies
One finding stands out above the others: many companies continue to view art and culture as parallel activities, a temporary exhibition project, a sponsorship, a foundation disconnected from the business, or an occasional intervention. This approach produces two consequences: it limits the strategic potential of art and makes it more difficult to demonstrate its organizational return.
Yet regulatory and market pressures are changing the landscape. With the expansion of ESG frameworks, non-financial reporting requirements, and growing demands for transparency regarding generated impacts, cultural assets can no longer remain confined to the category of “nice-to-have” activities. The central question is therefore no longer whether culture and sustainability should be integrated; the real issue is how.
141 parameters to transform the intangible into governance
This is where the most innovative aspect of the research emerges. The Observatory developed a framework composed of 141 indicators designed to measure the impact of Corporate Cultural & Art Assets across four macro dimensions: economic-business, socio-cultural, environmental and digital.
Within these areas, the framework includes parameters that significantly broaden how companies can interpret the cultural value they generate: from accessibility and inclusivity to the ability to activate the creative and cultural supply chain, from contributions to local ecosystem activation to effects on organizational well-being and workplace climate, including aspects related to reputation and organizational visibility. On the digital side, the framework considers elements such as the maturity, accessibility, and sustainability of infrastructures and cultural practices adopted.
However, the proposed model goes beyond building a measurement system. The indicators are distinguished between foundational components, necessary to ensure structured and conscious management of cultural assets, and transformative components, designed to use art and culture as tools capable of influencing organizational processes, competitiveness, and the generation of shared value.
The framework also integrates KPIs and KAIs (Key Activity Indicators) and aligns with international standards such as ESRS, GRI, SDGs, and UNESCO guidelines, with the objective of making cultural assets finally comparable, governable, and incorporable into corporate reporting systems.
This is not simply about quantifying cultural outputs. The central point is building managerial capacity, providing companies with tools to transform assets that are often fragmented or undervalued into strategic resources integrated into ESG policies.
From Heritage to Cultural Capital
This is where a broader reflection comes into play: if a company owns a historical archive, a corporate collection, a museum, supports artists, promotes cultural practices, or activates internal creative processes, it is not merely accumulating heritage, it is generating Cultural Capital.
And this is precisely the transition that is often missing: transforming scattered assets into relational systems capable of producing innovation, reputation, talent attraction, territorial engagement, and competitive differentiation.
This remains the most underestimated space: art not as a decorative element of business, but as a mechanism capable of activating imaginaries, producing new forms of relationships, and making organizations culturally more advanced.
Making value visible: the next frontier for Cultural Assets
The most widespread mistake is believing that measurement means reduction. In reality, within a context dominated by accountability, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement, measurement can become the language that allows art to enter spaces where it still struggles to be recognized today: boardrooms, ESG strategies, governance systems, and decision-making processes.
The real challenge, then, is not making art numerical; it is ensuring that it no longer remains invisible within reporting systems.
Media artist active since 2013, with over 80 exhibitions worldwide. His works are part of the catalogue of Heure Exquise!, distributor of the audiovisual collections of the Musée du Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay. He has been selected for major events and exhibitions, including the XVI Videoart Yearbook curated by art critic Renato Barilli, the Collettiva Giovani Artisti (Young Artists Collective) of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa and The Wrong Biennale, winning numerous awards and recognitions over the years.
His artistic research has also been included in the book “L’arte del XXI secolo. Temi, linguaggi, artisti” (21st Century Art: Themes, Languages, Artists) by Viviana Vannucci, lecturer and international curator.
Alongside his artistic activity, he works as an art director in the field of multimedia communication. Moving between art and communication, he coined the term “Artivator” to define a new role for the artist: cultural activator for brands, territories and realities outside the art system. He is also the author of the literary manifesto of Metaluddismo, published in the aperiodical Il Foglio Clandestino.
