EPADeputy Minister of Culture Vittorio Sgarbi and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 13:11
Italian politics has been captivated for days by a report by public broadcaster RAI, in which Italy’s deputy minister of culture is accused of possessing and having edited a stolen painting from the 17th century. He is also said to have illegally exported another work of art. He denies that he did anything wrong.
Vittorio Sgarbi is the name of the 71-year-old deputy minister, art critic and TV personality. He regularly makes it to the media because of his short fuse and foul language, but this time the reports are more serious, now that he is being investigated in two cases.
The first case came to light in the RAI research program Report and revolves around the painting The capture of Saint Peter (The Capture of Saint Peter) by Rutilio Manetti. It was stolen in 2013 from a castle in the northern Piedmont region. The work was found at Sgarbi after the broadcast last week and was seized by officers.
Sgarbi is accused of ordering the painting to be edited: a candle was added in the top left corner after the theft, presumably to disguise its provenance. The deputy minister himself contradicts this: he says that he found the work of art, with a candle, more than twenty years ago when he was restoring a villa that his mother had bought. He claims that the painting found in his villa is the original and that the ‘candleless’ work that was reported stolen in 2013 is a copy.
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Report/RAI
According to Report, this is Manetti’s original work
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Report/RAI
This would be the artwork after editing, probably commissioned by Sgarbi
In the report, the owner of the castle in Piedmont says that the canvas was cut from the frame in 2013. Some time before, a friend of Sgarbi is said to have visited the castle and said he wanted to buy the work.
In Report it also comes to light that another friend of the deputy minister had taken the damaged painting to a restorer. The hole in the frame was the same shape as the piece of canvas cut from the frame in 2013. When the work was offered by Sgarbi at an exhibition in 2021, a candle was visible on it.
A few days after the broadcast, a new accusation emerged: Sgarbi allegedly illegally exported a painting by the French artist Valentin de Boulogne. The work of art, worth 5 million euros, was seized in Monte Carlo. Sgarbi says it is a copy and that it was not his. “I have nothing to fear,” Sgarbi said in response. “I will defend myself in any way I can.”
New riot
It is the second time in a short time that an official of Prime Minister Meloni’s government has been embarrassed. At the beginning of this month, she decided to suspend a politician from her radical right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia.
He brought a gun to a New Year’s party, which accidentally went off and injured someone. The politician denied having fired the weapon, but refused to have the gunpowder residue tested. Local prosecutors are investigating the case.
2024-01-16 12:11:21
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