If you've always dreamed of hanging a painting by Leonardo or Michelangelo in your home, purchasing a certified digital copy could be just what you need.

The Italian non-profit Save the Artistic Heritage, with its technical partner Cinello, is providing collectors the possibility of owning a projection of original Italian masterpieces, sized and framed to match the museum experience. 

“The idea behind this was to, we don't just want to sell a piece of technology, we want to actually sell a piece of artwork," said John Blem, the Italian-born Danish entrepreneur behind the initiative.

“We actually invented a way to make a file unique, even though it’s a copy. The way our technology and the patent work is that these two actually are two different copies of the original one,” he added.

Using Cinello technology, a finite number of digital copies of the masterpieces can be projected onto screens sized to scale.

Save the Artistic Heritage has a catalogue of 250 Italian artworks and agreements with about 10 Italian museums and foundations, including the Pinacoteca di Brera.

Raffaello’s “The Marriage of the Virgin”, displayed at the Pinacoteca di Brera, is one of the examples of digital projections making waves in the art world.

"When it was exhibited in London for the first time last year, this digital copy of 'The Marriage of the Virgin' aroused great interest, not only in me but in everyone who saw it. The perfection, the luminosity, the clarity of the painting is astonishing," said the museum's director, Angelo Crespi.

Revenue sharing is integral to the project, which aims to help cash-strapped museums access new income streams. Over the last two years, Save the Artistic Heritage has contributed 300,000 euros ($347,000) to its Italian museum partners, with prices of the digital masterpieces ranging from 30,000 euros to 300,000 euros.

Blem said the programme is helping more people around the world access art.

AP video shot by Niccolò Lupone