Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation

Madrid, Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid.
Medal/Award in the category Heritage Champions in the year 2026.

Applicant: Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation.

Reason for the award :

The Awards’ Jury stated: “Factum Foundation demonstrates pioneering use of digital technology for the preservation of cultural heritage. Its work combines scientific rigour, education and long-term vision. The approach is increasingly relevant for safeguarding heritage in situations of climate change, conflict and disaster recovery.”

  • © Factum Foundation
  • © Factum Foundation
  • © Factum Foundation
  • © Factum Foundation
  • Modelling & Production of Colossus recorded at the Capitoline in Rome
  • Producing a facsimile (3D print 1:1, then cast in concrete) of data recorded by Alex Peck in October 2016 in Nigeria of the bottom half of a monolith, the top half of which we recorded in New York in March 2018.

Factum Foundation was founded in Madrid in 2009 by Adam Lowe as a non-profit organisation dedicated to the high-resolution digital documentation of cultural heritage. From its headquarters, a multidisciplinary team of around 60 specialists combines art historical knowledge, engineering and craft skills to record and reproduce artworks and heritage sites with precise attention to their material surface. The aim is to create accurate records that support research, conservation and public access. Several projects illustrate this approach. The digitisation of Veronese’s Wedding at Cana from the Louvre allowed the painting to return, in the form of a facsimile, to its original setting in San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The recording of the Tomb of Tutankhamun led to the Theban Necropolis Preservation Initiative and to a full-scale facsimile of the burial chamber, open to visitors since 2014 and helping to protect the fragile original. Between 2012 and 2021, the dispersed panels of the Polittico Griffoni were digitally reunited and presented as a facsimile in Bologna, allowing the altarpiece to be experienced as a whole again for the first time in centuries. Factum Foundation has collaborated with museums, libraries and heritage institutions in Spain, across Europe and beyond. Its work now spans more…

Factum Foundation was founded in Madrid in 2009 by Adam Lowe as a non-profit organisation dedicated to the high-resolution digital documentation of cultural heritage. From its headquarters, a multidisciplinary team of around 60 specialists combines art historical knowledge, engineering and craft skills to record and reproduce artworks and heritage sites with precise attention to their material surface. The aim is to create accurate records that support research, conservation and public access.

Several projects illustrate this approach. The digitisation of Veronese’s Wedding at Cana from the Louvre allowed the painting to return, in the form of a facsimile, to its original setting in San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The recording of the Tomb of Tutankhamun led to the Theban Necropolis Preservation Initiative and to a full-scale facsimile of the burial chamber, open to visitors since 2014 and helping to protect the fragile original. Between 2012 and 2021, the dispersed panels of the Polittico Griffoni were digitally reunited and presented as a facsimile in Bologna, allowing the altarpiece to be experienced as a whole again for the first time in centuries.

Factum Foundation has collaborated with museums, libraries and heritage institutions in Spain, across Europe and beyond. Its work now spans more than 30 countries and over 300 cultural institutions. In 2018 it launched ARCHiVe in Venice with the Giorgio Cini Foundation, promoting the use of digital technologies for research, archiving and training. In 2020 the Foundation acquired Aaltosiilo in Finland, Alvar and Aino Aalto’s first industrial building, restoring it as a centre dedicated to technology applied to conservation.

Beyond documentation, the work of Factum Foundation has helped reconnect heritage with communities. In Nigeria, recording projects assisted in the recovery and return of monoliths to the Bakor region. In Brazil, the vandalised Sacred Cave of Kamukuwaká was digitally restored and reproduced, so that it could again transmit cultural knowledge to the Upper Xingu community. Workshops and training initiatives transfer skills to local specialists and institutions.

Through digital recording, facsimile production and international collaboration, Factum Foundation has introduced new ways to study, preserve and share cultural heritage, and has shown how digitisation can support international cooperation in heritage protection. It has also contributed to the debate on authenticity and reproduction, arguing that precise facsimiles can protect fragile originals from human and natural disasters, while allowing wider access to cultural heritage.

www.factumfoundation.org

Others awards in Comunidad de Madrid: