Sgarbi, “His political forays are the result of prejudices. I keep a bad memory. I appreciated his courage.”
The historian and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi recalls his controversies with the writer Michela Murgia and observes: “I am not a hypocrite, and in the respect that is due to those who are no longer there, and even more to those who loved her I have to say that I have a bad memory of the Murgia woman of culture. Like when, for example, she said of Battiato: “He wrote bullshit. I would have expected more profound arguments instead of such a trivial joke”. And he adds: “I also remember when, out of pure political prejudice and partisanship, he transformed a military salute into a fascist salute. Or when, a few days ago, arguing with the Ventimiglia administration, he even evoked ‘the fascist regime’.
Of the writer Sgarbi acknowledges having “appreciated courage and determination, and certainly the dignity with which she faced the disease”. But he adds: “I think he belonged to that group of mythologized left-wing intellectuals to whom everything is allowed, even insulting one of the greatest authors and composers of Italian music, with the complacency of moralists when necessary, ready instead to lash out against the subverters of the ‘politically correct’: I am thinking of militant newspapers such as Il Fatto or La Repubblica”. “Great respect for the suffering of this woman and for her death, – he underlines – but I see and read messages and words of circumstance that reveal inconsistency and hypocrisy. Even the Murgia, when she intervened in the political debate, said, to use her own words, a lot of “bullshit”, often the result of ideological and political prejudice. Remembering it today that it no longer exists means honoring it with frankness and loyalty”.