The Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage Vittorio Sgarbi is under investigation. The case concerns the painting The capture of Saint Peter Of Rutilio Manetti, stolen in 2013 from the castle of Buriasco in Piedmont and reappeared in an exhibition in Lucca in 2021 retouched as “unpublished” owned by Sgarbi. The file was opened by the Imperia Prosecutor’s Office after the investigation Everyday occurrence, that with Report told the story of the painting, as a derivation of another investigation (relating to Valentin de Boulogne). And transmitted to that of Macerata, because Sgarbi has his domicile in San Severino Marche, of which he was mayor in 1992, a place he himself designated for interrogations.
The Imperia Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the illicit export of a painting abroad
The Undersecretary for Culture Vittorio Sgarbi was investigated, in 2023, by the Imperia Prosecutor’s Office regarding the affair concerning the export, considered illicit, of a painting abroad. The investigation, covered by investigative secrecy, is confirmed by the prosecutor Alberto Lari. The same magistrate makes it known that regarding the case of the painting attributed to Rutilio Manettistolen from the Buriasco Castle in 2013 and reappeared in Lucca in 2021 as “unpublished” owned by Vittorio Sgarbi, who would be investigated for theft of cultural property, no investigation was opened in Imperia and the documents received by the Carabinieri of the Protection Unit cultural heritage last December were immediately transmitted to the Macerata Prosecutor’s Office for jurisdiction, because Sgarbi declared his domicile in San Severino Marche, of which he was mayor in 1992, the place he himself designated for interrogations.
Macerata Prosecutor’s Office: file on Sgarbi for self-laundering
The file in which the undersecretary for Cultural Heritage Vittorio Sgarbi is under investigation for the crime of self-laundering of cultural goods referred to in article 518-septies of the criminal code was sent to the Macerata prosecutor’s office a few days ago, as confirmed by the prosecutor of Macerata Giovanni Fabrizio Narbone.
Sgarbi replies: “I didn’t receive any warnings”
Sgarbi replies: “I have not received any notice of investigation. Nor would I know how to be investigated for a theft that I did not commit. And for a crime committed 11 years ago, in circumstances not clarified by the investigators at the time. This news shows a clear violation of the secrecy of the investigation, the only crime of which there is evidence”.
The painting
The other charges of crimes could concern the hypothesis that the undersecretary of the Meloni government modified the 17th century painting to make it appear different from the one owned by Margherita Buzio, who reported the theft at the time. The thieves cut the canvas and scratched the frame. However, leaving a corner of the canvas. In the work exhibited by Sgarbi in Lucca, a torch appears which is not present in the photos of the original. The undersecretary and councilor for Beauty in the municipality of Viterbo has always maintained that they were two different works and that he found the canvas in his possession by chance in the villa in Viterbo purchased by his mother in the early 2000s. Then there is the story of the painting’s exhibition in Lucca: the hypothesis is that the original was not shown but a high resolution reproduction.
“From what we read, the work was badly cut. And the one in my possession is in good condition and with a well-preserved and uniform pictorial layer – continues Sgarbi – Any evaluation must be made on the work of which the stolen one is clearly a copy, like all those preserved in that castle that no one cared about. Nor do I believe it is a crime to have a photograph taken of a work of which all the experts have seen the original exhibited in Lucca” adds the undersecretary who entrusts the his reply to a statement in which he continues: “That the Imperia Public Prosecutor’s Office has sent the documents to Macerata as the competent office is news that could make sense if, as the law requires, I were aware of it. But this is not the case In fact, it should be a magistrate, not a journalist, who establishes what to investigate and the complicity of restorers and photographers, improvised accusers, but who could turn out to be complicit in more serious crimes and omissions.”
Meanwhile the carabinieri would have summoned and interviewed the restorer Gianfranco Mingardi: “The first to recognize the work on display in Lucca – they explain from Il Fatto – received from Sgarbi’s collaborator, Paolo Bocedi, a few weeks after the 2013 theft.” But the military would have arrived in Correggio (Reggio Emilia) to also listen to the owners of the G-Lab company who for Sgarbi, as explained on Monday to Reportcreated a reproduction of the work.
M5S: “Let Meloni intervene”
For the M5S “the news of the opening of an investigation into the case of the stolen painting involving Vittorio Sgarbi does nothing but confirm the alarming contours of this whole affair. We will see what the results of the investigation will be, but we continue to reiterate that the times of politics on some specific cases in which the honorability of the institutions is called into question are absolutely different and require speed and concreteness”, we read in the note from the Movement. Which asks the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and to the minister of culture Gennaro Sangiuliano “what type of actions they intend to undertake on the Sgarbi case and in general to express themselves with clear words on an affair that represents a unique event on a global level. Otherwise this government would confirm once again that the consociational and self-preservation logic prevails over the national interest.”