As many glass enthusiasts around the world know, Murano Glass is neither a style nor a technique, is a denomination of origin; it represents the place where, for a thousand years, Murano Glass art has been passed from generation to generation of glass masters.
That is why we were very surprised when some friends on twitter pointed out that NOVICA, a USA fair trade company associated with NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, was selling glass pieces made in Brazil, under the name of Murano Glass.
Following this highlighting, we sent a letter through our social networks to Novica and The National Geographic; this letter has been also published in newspapers to clearify the issue.
We asked Novica to behave in a ethical way with the Murano glass masters, changing the words written on their website.
Our plea has been shared by many people until it has been finally received.
Mr.Roberto Milk, CEO at NOVICA, is going to take onboard our plea and will have the glass objects’ names on his website changed from Murano Glass to Murano Inspired Glass.
Although for some of you this may seem a small change, for us here in Murano is a great sign of respect and we are very impressed by Mr.Milk quick and satisfactory response to the concerns that we raised only few days ago.
As we thought, this was just a mistake made in good faith and NOVICA and its CEO have shown that is possible to pay homage to Murano Glass tradition without exploiting its name.
Below you can find the comment that Mr. Milk has posted on this article on the Venice Times .
National Geographic and NOVICA have shown the world that the respect for local traditions and cultural heritage is more important than money.
It is a small but meaningful victory for original Murano Glass on a international issue and even if there’s still a lot of work to do in this sense, the support and encouragement that our fans across the various social networks has shown us will help pave the way to a broader and more incisive action worldwide, in order to defend the name of Murano Glass and the hard work of our glass masters.