Galleria Borghese leads digital revolution in museums with integrated catalogue, archives and HBIM systems

Rome — Leading figures from Italy’s cultural heritage sector gathered yesterday at the Sala Spadolini of the Ministry of Culture for a seminar exploring how digital technologies are reshaping the museum of the future through integrated catalogues, archives and Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM).

The event, which opened at 11 a.m. on April 15, brought together senior representatives from the Ministry of Culture, museum leadership and digital heritage specialists to present and discuss innovative projects transforming the documentation, management and accessibility of cultural heritage.

The seminar was opened by Alessandro Giuli, Minister of Culture, who set out the strategic importance of digital transformation for Italy’s cultural system. He was followed by Alfonsina Russo, Head of the Department for the Valorisation of Cultural Heritage, who highlighted the growing role of digital museums in addressing contemporary challenges in heritage protection and public engagement.

Further institutional contributions came from Andrea De Pasquale, Director General for Digitalisation and Communication, and Roberto Vannata, Director of Service II within the Directorate General for Museums, who outlined national strategies for developing an integrated ecosystem for cultural innovation and immersive technologies.

Central to the discussion were the Galleria Borghese’s digital projects, presented under the direction of Francesca Cappelletti, Director of the Galleria Borghese, who described an ongoing transformation of the museum’s research and communication infrastructure.

The technical development of the museum’s digital ecosystem was presented by Maria Giulia Rinaldi, Digital Curator and art historian, who illustrated the architecture of the online catalogue and its role as a scientific publication platform. The Digital Archives project was then outlined by Simona Ciofetta, Digital Curator, alongside Marina Minozzi, former curator at the Galleria Borghese, who emphasised its capacity to reconstruct the historical trajectory of the collection through inventories, archival sources and conservation data.

The HBIM initiative and accessibility projects funded through Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) were presented by Agnese Murrali, architect and head of the museum’s technical office, who demonstrated how advanced digital modelling is being used to manage and interpret the museum building as a dynamic, information rich structure.

The morning session concluded with a roundtable discussion featuring Francesca Cappelletti, Andrea De Pasquale, Stefania De Vincentis, José María Luzón, and Roberto Vannata, who reflected on the implications of digital transformation for the future of museums in Italy and internationally.

Throughout the seminar, the Galleria Borghese presented its integrated digital system, combining an advanced online catalogue, structured digital archives and HBIM modelling. Developed in collaboration with the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, the catalogue now functions as a multimedia research platform, incorporating high resolution imagery, 3D models, digitised bibliographies and cross institutional links, with each scholarly entry assigned a DOI.

The Digital Archives project complements this system by reconstructing the life history of works through historical inventories, archival documentation and conservation records, including information on works no longer housed in the museum.

The HBIM system extends this approach to the building itself, producing intelligent three dimensional models enriched with semantic data on construction history, maintenance and restoration.

Finally, the seminar also highlighted PNRR-funded initiatives such as Racconti di luce, a videomapping project projecting a chronological visual narrative onto the museum façade, and Sguardi oltre il tempo, an immersive virtual and augmented reality experience using Oculus technology to guide visitors through the evolution of the Galleria Borghese.

Together, these initiatives position the Galleria Borghese at the forefront of a radical shift in museum practice, where digital infrastructure is no longer supplementary but central to research, preservation and public engagement.

PS