2024-01-12 19:18:00
A 17th century painting seized during searches of Vittorio Sgarbi’s homes. The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Macerata has delegated the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Command to carry out house searches against the Undersecretary of Culture who was notified of the position of suspect, relating to the hypothesis of a money laundering crime.
The search was ordered as part of the investigation relating to the hypothesis of a money laundering crime against the art critic, for having acquired the availability of a cultural asset, consisting of a large seventeenth-century painting depicting “a judge who condemns a man with a venerable face from the profile of Saint Peter” by an unknown author, recalling the painters ‘Solimena’ and ‘Cavallino’. During the operations, which also extended to the art critic’s Roman and Marche domiciles, in which the parties involved also collaborated, telematic, IT and documentary devices relating to the ongoing investigation were also seized.
The seized work
According to what we read in the TPC Carabinieri note, the work would be the proceeds of the theft which occurred at the castle of Buriasco to the detriment of the owner Margherita Buzio, reported on 02.14.2013 to the CC. of Vigone in the Turin area, in competition with currently unknown persons. The searches led to the seizure of the painting for subsequent scientific verification, a painting which was found by the authorities in warehouses in Ro Ferrarese in the province of Ferrara in the availability of the ‘Cavallini-Sgarbi’ Foundation together with a copy in three D, commissioned by a laboratory in Correggio in the province of Reggio Emilia.
Sgarbi’s post
Sgarbi expressed himself with a post on Facebook: “Painting by Rutilio Manetti: I spontaneously handed over the work so that all the necessary checks can be carried out, starting from the measurements of the painting compared to the frame of the stolen one. I am absolutely calm. The seizure a necessary act. I have nothing to fear”, writes the undersecretary. “I will defend myself by all means against those who speculate on the matter and those who become complicit in it.”
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