Behind the scenes: Digitizing the Grand Duke of Luxembourg with Artec 3D scanning

By Paul Hanaphy

3D Scanners

Challenge: Creating a lifelike 3D model of His Royal Highness Guillaume V, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, for a historic portrait commissioned to celebrate his ascension to the throne.

Solution: Artec Leo, Artec Spider II, Artec Studio, Rhino 3D, Autodesk Maya

Result: An incredibly realistic bust of the Grand Duke, featuring fine facial details and telltale hair characteristics, which are traditionally very difficult to capture with 3D scanning.

Why Artec 3D?: Artec Leo captured an ultra-fast, accurate scan, while Artec Spider II picked up tiny, intricate features like skin textures and the Grand Duke’s facial expression. Artec Studio made combining and simplifying these datasets quick and easy, yielding an outstanding 3D model, made lightweight for subsequent digital sculpting, 3D printing, and casting in bronze.

2025 was a landmark year for Luxembourg. His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri, who had reigned over the country for the last 25 years, abdicated in favor of his son, Guillaume V.

Known popularly as the “Trounwiessel” or throne change, this seminal moment in Luxembourg’s history was marked by celebrations, many of which were public, bringing citizens closer to their new monarch. One of the most traditional of these events, the unveiling of the Grand Duke’s Portrait, goes back centuries, so the creation of this monument is an important responsibility.

The Grand Duke & Duchess’ portraits and bust on display. Image courtesy of Maison du Grand-Duc ©

With the portrait set to include several paintings alongside a bust of the Grand Duke himself, Serge Ecker was given the opportunity to sculpt a statue from bronze. The local artist had the freedom to imprint his own style on the piece under one condition: it had to resemble His Royal Highness Guillaume V, so Ecker needed to find a way to achieve an accurate digitization.

Whichever technology he chose to digitize the Grand Duke had to deliver – after all, he’d only be given a brief amount of time to capture a 3D model. That’s why he asked Artec 3D. Having worked with the company since 2012, he knew that its professional 3D scanners would collect all the high-detail scan data required, first time, without tiny mistakes or trial & error.

Digitizing the Grand Duke of Luxembourg

Already familiar with Artec 3D’s intuitive product range, Ecker could’ve carried out the scanning process himself. But to ensure best possible results, he asked Artec 3D’s experts to digitize the Grand Duke instead. Though they were only given 30 minutes, this proved more than enough time, with Artec Leo used to capture at speed and Artec Spider II picking up finer details.

With Leo alone, it’s feasible to digitize someone’s entire body in just a few minutes. However, the team understood the assignment. Knowing that this was the only chance they’d get to scan the Grand Duke, they captured more data than required. Artec’s scanning specialists kept His Royal Highness up to date with progress on a 3D display, while requesting different poses.

Artec Leo’s built-in display showing a 3D scan of the Grand Duke. Image courtesy of Maison du Grand-Duc ©

The Grand Duke was the model participant, staying incredibly still, showing a level of discipline that’s said to have been instilled during his time in the military. In just 15-20 minutes, the team had a full upper-body model with all the facial features required to make a lifelike bust. According to Ecker, it was only possible to achieve this level of realism with Leo & Spider II.

“The Grand Ducal Palace asked for one thing: they wanted a representative, realistic face. They left me to use my ‘creativity’ in the process, but in the end, they wanted visitors to be able to recognize the Grand Duke,” explained Ecker. “Combining low and high resolution 3D scans worked really well for that, and we could always make resulting models lighter later on.”

Turning a 3D model into a bust

Ecker offered some guidance and coordination during 3D scanning, but he left post-processing to the professionals – again, to maximize realism. Smart Fusion in Artec Studio merges different point clouds in a single step, utilizing the highest-resolution data from each scan. This meant Spider II scans could effectively be used to add touch-ups & improve the Grand Duke’s likeness.

Combining these high and low-polygon scans yielded a brilliantly detailed 3D model. Technically, it might’ve been possible to achieve similar exterior detail with photogrammetry, but it would’ve risked being affected by lighting, and the technology doesn’t capture as much geometry.

Grand Duke Guillaume V being 3D-scanned with Spider II. Image courtesy of Maison du Grand-Duc ©

To make the final model easier to use for sculpting, Artec’s experts applied scan decimation in Artec Studio to delete excess frames, without removing vital details. The artist then began a painstaking three-month journey towards his final design. Essentially, Ecker “abstracted” the data, using Rhino’s spline tools to separate polygons and Maya to sculpt them into a bust.

Of course, it’s generally possible to digitally redesign products at pace. But this was a case of manually removing, turning, and orienting polygons to change surface flow. Once Ecker had brought his artistic vision to life, the resulting model was 3D-printed and turned into positive molds of the Grand Duke’s face and head, which were cast in bronze at a nearby foundry.

The resulting sculpture is almost indistinguishable from the real Guillaume V and features an exceptional level of detail, earning recognition for its realism and craftsmanship. Previously on display at Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart as part of an Official Portraits exhibition, which concluded on February 1st, 2026, this bust has become something of a symbol, reflecting the coming together of historic tradition with art and modern technology – scenes that continue to flourish in Luxembourg today.

Heritage preservation at its finest

As a proud Luxembourgish company, Artec 3D not only brands its 3D scanners “Made in Luxembourg,” it continually works with local partners to promote the country’s heritage. At the Osaka Expo, 3D models of Luxembourg’s landmarks were shared with visitors from around the world. Captured with Artec 3D scanning, these digital twins brought unprecedented exposure.

As part of the Grand Duke’s Portrait project, Artec 3D has now moved beyond heritage preservation into “heritage creation.” Ecker’s bust will serve as a lasting reminder of the ascension of Guillaume V – and the technology’s wider potential to bring history to life.

The final 3D model of the Grand Duke’s bust. Image courtesy of Serge Ecker

Even for Ecker, who has become accustomed to using Artec 3D scanning, the technology continues to open doors to artistic experimentation. Having delved into bronze sculpting for the first time, he’s now weighing up further projects that combine techniques old and new as a means of pushing the boundaries of artistic expression with the help of industry partners.

“I’m a concept artist,” concluded Ecker. “The DIY factor is quite important to me, and capturing a real place, transforming it, or bringing it somewhere else is my way of interpreting and translating it into something new. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, there’s a technology for that. But sometimes you reach a limit, and these collaborations really help you grow.”