Italy’s Culture Secretary Vittorio Sgarbi has resigned following mounting controversy. He is currently under investigation for allegedly laundering stolen art. Last week, he shocked the nation by verbally attacking two journalists who covered the issue, shouting: “If you die in a car crash, I’ll be happy.” He has also been accused by Italy’s Antitrust Authority (TAR) of accepting large sums of money for appearances at cultural events.
Sugarbi, 71, is a notoriously outspoken conservative art critic and television personality. He resigned on Friday, just before giving a lecture on Michelangelo in Milan. He came on February 15, two weeks before he had to face a vote of no confidence. In his announcement, he did not mention the art theft scandal, instead citing antitrust violations as the reason. Investigate as his reason.
“According to what the antitrust authorities have sent me, this meeting will be inconsistent, illegal, and illegitimate,” he said. “Therefore, in order to prevent you from becoming accomplices in crime, I am now stepping away from my duties as deputy minister to speak out.”
A letter published yesterday by Mr. Sgarbi to Italian President Giorgia Meloni appears to suggest that he is preparing for retaliation. He avoided using the word “resign,” leading to speculation in some quarters that he was seeking a different outcome. Instead, Mr. Sgarbi announced that he would appeal TAR’s decision. He went on to suggest that TAR should extend its investigation to all government officials “on the same basis.” This has been widely interpreted by the Italian media as a threatening “counterattack”.
Sgarbi is the first minister to resign from Meloni’s cabinet, and has been under pressure for weeks to resign following widely publicized revelations that he was involved in laundering a stolen painting by Rutilio di Lorenzo Manetti. The piece was stolen from a private castle in 2013 and has never been recovered. Suspicions about Mr. Sgarbi’s involvement first surfaced after he displayed a very similar work in his 2022 exhibition, but the main difference between the two canvases is that in Mr. Sgarbi’s version there is a candle in the upper left corner. was included.
Testimony from a restorer who worked on the painting supports the possibility that the candle was added as a cover-up after the theft. Mr Sugarbi claimed that his version of the painting was found in a house his mother bought in 2000, and dismissed his accusations as a form of “political invasion”. The paintings belonging to Mr. Sgarbi were confiscated by Italian authorities.
in him letter On Sunday, Mr. Sgarbi told Mr. Meloni that he wanted to avoid any mention of the scandal, keeping the focus squarely on the antitrust investigation and portraying himself as being unfairly persecuted. . Mr. Sgarbi never mentioned the amount of the payment he was offered and framed the issue as if it were a free speech issue.
“I am prohibited from discussing or promoting my art or my ideas in any way,” he wrote.
According to reports, Mr Sgarbi became angry on state television last Monday when asked about the allegedly stolen paintings. Il Fat Quotidiano. He yelled at journalists Manuele Bonaccorsi and Thomas McKinson to “stop doing that” and went on an expletive-filled tirade, calling them “as ignorant as goats”. He also threatened to expose his genitals on air.
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