Gucci is often treated as a classic story of luxury brand survival. The brand has weathered family exit, institutional ownership, public-market exposure, conglomerate stewardship, and multiple creative resets. It stands as a textbook example of a heritage fashion house whose brand/IP layer proved portable beyond its founding family. However, Cultural Asset Economics (CAE) reveals a far sharper distinction. The approved CAE classification for the Gucci case is: Durable brand/I