Rome prosecutors on Tuesday requested
that former culture undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi be indicted
for alleged tax evasion in relation to the purchase of a
painting.
The 71-year-old allegedly made it look like his partner had
bought the artwork at auction in 2020 using money from a third
party to hide the transaction from the inland revenue, whom he
alleged owes around 715,000 euros.
Sgarbi, a famously volatile polemicist as well as one of Italy's
top art critics and historians, resigned from Premier Giorgia
Meloni's government after Italy's antitrust authority said that
his private conferences and other lucrative activities were
incompatible with his role as culture undersecretary.
He is also the subject of a separate criminal probe into an
allegedly stolen painting.
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