Italian culture official investigated in case of stolen art

A deputy culture minister in Italy is under investigation accused of laundering stolen goods, specifically a Baroque painting reported stolen from a castle in Piedmont, Italy, a decade ago.

The deputy minister, Vittorio Sgarbi, an art historian and critic as well as a media personality, has said he is innocent.

The story of the investigation began in 2013, when a painting was reported stolen from the castle, which had for a time been a restaurant, according to police documents. Eight years later, in 2021, Mr. Sgarbi showed a painting called “The Imprisonment of St. Peter,” attributed to the 17th-century artist Rutilio Manetti, from his own collection, in a exhibition he curated in Lucca, Tuscany.

This month, prosecutors in the central Italian town of Macerata seized “The Imprisonment of St. Peter,” saying in a statement to Italian art theft police that they believe the painting was stolen from the castle in Piedmont and the painting of Mr Sgarbi. exhibited are one and the same. Although Mr. Sgarbi is under investigation, he has not been charged with a crime.

The investigation follows an investigation into the reported theft of the painting from Piedmont by the daily Il Fatto Quotidiano and 'Report', an investigative television program on national broadcaster RAI 3, in which restorers and associates of Mr Sgarbi are interviewed.

The owner of the castle told reporters and said in a police statement that the painting disappeared shortly after a man visited the castle and offered to buy the artwork, which she had refused to sell. The man was identified in the television investigation as a former employee and friend of Mr. Sgarbi.

The investigative journalists also spoke to a restorer in Brescia, in northern Italy, who told them he had been asked by Mr Sgarbi to restore a painting that matched the description of the work from Piedmont.

In a telephone interview, the restorer, Gianfranco Mingardi, said that Mr. Sgarbi contacted him in 2013 to say he was sending him a painting to be restored. Mr Mingardi said a version of the painting was delivered as a rolled canvas, and “when unrolled the paint came off”, so he had to be very careful, he said. It had been cut off along the outer edges, Mr Mingardi said.

He carried out the restoration in 2016. “It took time to recover,” he says.

Mr. Sgarbi's lawyer, Giampaolo Cicconi, declined to be interviewed by a New York Times reporter, writing in an email that “I do not intend to release any statements at this delicate stage.”

Interviewed by 'Report', Mr Sgarbi said his painting was found in the attic of a villa his mother bought in 2000.

Mr. Sgarbi has argued that the two works are different, noting in particular that his painting contains a small torch in the upper left corner, while the Piedmont painting (known only through photographs) does not. He has said that they are two versions of the same painting.

'The Capture of St. Peter' will now be examined by a group of experts, who will try to determine whether the two works fit together.

Whoever stole the painting from Piedmont in 2013 cut it from its frame and replaced it with a plasticized, scale-sized photocopy, police documents show. When cutting it out, they left behind a small fragment that was found when investigative journalists visited the castle last year as part of the news investigation.

Experts working for the plaintiffs will try to determine whether Mr. Sgarbi's painting could fit into that frame, and whether the fragment could fit into his painting. They will also try to determine whether the torch in Mr. Sgarbi's painting was painted in the 17th century or added later.

Mr Sgarbi is not new to controversy. Known for his short temper and use of foul language, he has been in Italian headlines for decades.

Last year he came under scrutiny for being paid for public events, including conferences or book launches, and heading one of Italy's largest institutions, despite being a member of parliament. antitrust authorities to investigate whether Mr Sgarbi has been involved in activities 'incompatible with his membership of the government'. A ruling is expected within a few weeks.

In the wake of the latest row, opposition parties have called on Mr Sgarbi to be ousted as deputy culture minister, and the opposition Five Star Movement has tabled a motion to that effect in parliament, expected to be debated next week.

The government has remained silent, but the complaint to the antitrust authority was filed by his boss, Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano.

After “The Imprisonment of St. Peter” was seized by Italian art police, Mr. Sgarbi said on social media that he had spontaneously given up the painting so it could be thoroughly examined. 'I am absolutely serene' he wrote on Facebook. “I have nothing to fear.”