Art critic Vittorio Sgarbi said after resigning as culture undersecretary Friday that he had received a letter from the antitrust authority telling him he could not address a conference amid a probe into alleged conflict of interests over payments for private gigs.
"The Antitrust sent a very complex and confusing letter saying that it had accepted two anonymous letters, which the Minister of Culture sent to the Antitrust, in which it was written that I cannot do a conference organised by (journalist Nicola) Porro (a talk show host on the Berlusconi channel Retequattro, ed.).
Sgarbi said his quitting was a "coup de theatre", speaking at Porro's event in Milan, titled La Ripartenza (The New Departure).
Sgarbi, 71, a polemicist known for his intemperate and profane outbursts on TV shows, is also the subject of a criminal probe into an allegedly stolen painting.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
