Culture Undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi
on Friday quit amid a criminal probe into alleged laundering of
cultural assets and an investigation by Italy's antitrust
authority to see if lavish reported earnings from various
private contracts represent an activity incompatible with that
of being a member of the government.
"I am resigning with immediate effect as undersecretary of the
government and will inform (Premier Giorgia) Meloni in the next
few hours", said the 71-year-old art historian and polemicist on
the sidelines of an event in Milan.
Last October the antitrust authority opened a probe sparked by a
report from Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano to establish if
the hundreds of thousands of euros reportedly earned in various
gigs by the volatile art critic and cultural expert are
incompatible with his government standing and whether the
private sector work constitutes possible conflicts of interest.
Separately, in early January prosecutors in Macerata said they
had opened a investigation into Sgarbi for the alleged
self-laundering of cultural assets in relation to a work by
Baroque painter Rutilio di Lorenzo Manetti that was stolen from
Castello di Buriasco, in Piedmont, in 2013.
Sgarbi was accused of getting someone to add a torch into the
top of the painting to make out it was a different one.
The former undersecretary has said he is innocent.
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