The professional activities as an art
critic of former culture undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi were
incompatible with his role in government according to the
findings of a probe by Italy's antitrust authority published in
advance by the online edition of Corriere della Sera on
Saturday.
"The undersecretary of State for Culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, has
carried out professional activities in his capacity as an art
critic, in matters connected with the office of government, as
specified in the explanatory statement, in favour of public and
private subjects", in violation of the Frattini Law on conflict
of interest, the ruling said.
The volatile 71-year-old polemicist bowed to mounting pressure
to quit on Friday amid the investigation by Italy's competition
watchdog to see if lavish reported earnings from various private
contracts represented an activity incompatible with that of
being a member of government and a separate criminal probe into
into alleged laundering of cultural assets in relation to an
allegedly stolen painting.
He denies all wrongdoing.
In its ruling the antitrust authority reportedly said the
occasional nature of the activities carried out by Sgarbi
alleged in his defence briefs is "totally incompatible with the
creation and maintenance of a stable organisation of people and
resources with the sole purpose of organising, managing and
executing out Prof. Sgarbi's speeches in return for payment".
"The principle of exclusive dedication to the care of public
interests cannot, in fact, be emptied of content by means of an
indefinite summation of activities that, even when considered
permissible on an individual level, as a whole lack the
requisites of occasionality and temporariness, entailing a
significant subtraction of time and intellectual resources from
the pursuit of the interests underlying the office of
government," the authority added.
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