Sgarbi risks 12 years in prison for the Manetti painting. For the prosecutors “it was stolen and counterfeited”

The painting of <a href="https://www.world-today-news.com/undersecretary-vittorio-sgarbi-on-stolen-rutilio-manetti-painting-im-not-worried/" title="Undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi on Stolen Rutilio Manetti Painting: "I'm not worried"”>Rutilio Manettiexponent of the seventeenth century Siena, “it was stolen and faked” and the former undersecretary of Culture Vittorio Sgarbi risks – he writes the Fact – from 4 to 12 years in prison. The Macerata prosecutor’s office has closed the investigation into the 17th century painting stolen in 2013 from the castle of Buriasco in Piedmont.

The work “The Capture of Saint Peter” reappeared in an exhibition in Lucca in 2021 in a version defined as “unpublished” owned by Sgarbi, who is now under investigation for laundering of cultural goods, counterfeiting of works of art and self-laundering of cultural heritage.

According to prosecutors, the former undersecretary would have had a torch added to the top left on the canvas believed to be original by the investigators. The expert report and full confession of the forger himself framed him. The investigators also found a tube of oil tempera purchased in the historic “Poggi” paint factory in via del Gesù, a stone’s throw from the Roman College where he was an undersecretary.

Sgarbi has always sworn – even in strong tones – that he found the painting as it was in the attic of his villa in the province of Viterbo. But, now, the confession of Pasquale Frongia, aka Lino, his great friend, the painter-copyist, completely changes the version of events. The art critic has once again rejected the accusations, which he defines as “unfounded”.