The Dalí Foundation will digitize 600,000 items and make them accessible to the public

The Dalí Foundation has announced the launch of a large-scale project to fully digitize its collections and historical archive. As part of the initiative, more than 600,000 digital images and records will be created and gradually made accessible to the general public. The project began in October 2025 and is scheduled to run until 2028, with a budget of €1.2 million. It implements a strategic objective set by the foundation’s president, Jordi Mercader: to preserve, connect, and project Salvador Dalí’s legacy into the future. The work covers holdings kept in several key locations, including Torre Galatea, the Teatre-Museu Dalí, Castell Gala Dalí, and the Casa-Museu Salvador Dalí. More than 118,000 documents are set to be digitized, including manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, audiovisual materials, and press archives, along with around 15,000 museum objects such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and items from the artist’s studio. Until now, digitization had mainly focused on Dalí’s paintings, available through an online catalogue. This new phase significantly expands the scope and brings all types of holdings into a unified system. A key feature of the project is the use of artificial intelligence technologies to create an “intelligent archive.” This will enable semantic searches by themes and ideas, link artworks and related documents, identify recurring motifs in Dalí’s work, and support broader analysis of his creative process. The work is being carried out in stages. Digitization of the collection in Púbol has already been completed, while archival materials in Figueres are still being processed, with completion expected by summer 2026. Work on the holdings at Torre Galatea began in April, after which specialists will move on to the Teatre-Museu Dalí collection. In the autumn, the next phase will begin, focusing on the house-museum in Cadaqués. The project is being implemented by several departments within the foundation, with the involvement of the Dalí Studies Center and the Conservation and Restoration department, as well as external specialists including photographers, archivists, and experts in cultural heritage digitization. Artificial intelligence is viewed not as a replacement for human expertise but as a tool to enhance research by connecting data from different sources. The foundation emphasizes that the initiative is aimed not only at preserving the legacy but also at making it accessible to researchers and the wider public. According to Jordi Mercader, the project presents cultural heritage as a dynamic system capable of engaging with the present and generating new interpretations, transforming memory into active knowledge.The post The Dalí Foundation will digitize 600,000 items and make them accessible to the public first appeared on All PYRENEES.