{"id":358050,"date":"2026-03-25T22:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/358050\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T22:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:46:12","slug":"why-giorgia-melonis-italy-is-on-a-mission-to-buy-back-lost-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/358050\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Giorgia Meloni\u2019s Italy is on a mission to buy back \u2018lost art\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing in the grand hall of Sotheby\u2019s auction house in New York, Italy\u2019s culture minister proudly admired a Renaissance masterpiece depicting Christ with a crown of thorns as if it were his favourite child. <\/p>\n

Christ was gazing back at him with an expression of misery. Alessandro Giuli was there to bring him home.<\/p>\n

The ministry had snapped up the Ecce Homo, one of dozens by the Sicilian artist Antonello da Messina, for $14.9 million last month. <\/p>\n

\"MinisterGiuli with the Ecce Homo painting <\/p>\n

\"GiorgiaThe push to bring masterpieces back to Italy has been led by Giorgia Meloni, the prime ministerCristiano Minichiello\/AGF\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a historic moment. The return of this painting to Italy is an unprecedented cultural achievement,\u201d Giuli, who sported a characteristically dapper double breasted suit jacket and a leather trench coat, told journalists gathered before the painting dated between 1460 and 1465. <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cTaxpayers\u2019 money should always be spent wisely, by being invested in the common heritage of all Italian citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy stepped in to buy it from its private owner, who was reported to be from Chile. The purchase was followed by an even bigger splurge when, this month, Italy bought a Caravaggio portrait of Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII<\/a>, for a whopping $30 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time ever that Italy has spent such a large sum on works of art,\u201d said Carlo Orsi, a gallerist who has brokered previous deals between private collectors and the state, including of a bronze sculpture of Carlo Barberini, Maffeo\u2019s brother, by the baroque sculptor Francesco Mochi. \u201cIt had never happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orsi added that it was highly unusual for the state to reveal sums paid for artworks.<\/p>\n

\"OilCaravaggio\u2019s portrait of Maffeo Barberini Alberto Novelli\/Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica\/AP<\/p>\n

Art world observers say the spending spree is part of a nationalist agenda spearheaded by the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, aimed at projecting Italy\u2019s cultural might at home and abroad, much as it did when winning Unesco world heritage status for Italian food<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are perhaps trying to show that Italy is a great country,\u201d said Gianni Papi, an art historian and curator specialised in Caravaggio, adding that the paintings were \u201csensational\u201d buys. \u201cWe are dealing with two of the greatest artists of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Handily, the news is also generating positive coverage for the ministry that presides over more Unesco world heritage sites than any other country but has been rocked by recent scandals. <\/p>\n

\"VittorioVittorio Sgarbi Alessandro Bremec\/NurPhoto\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

In 2024, Vittorio Sgarbi, a foul-mouthed art critic and television personality, resigned as a junior culture minister amid allegations that he laundered a 17th-century painting stolen from a castle near Turin. <\/p>\n

Months later, Gennaro Sangiuliano, Giuli\u2019s predecessor, walked the plank after granting an influencer access to parliament and ministerial meetings, which she filmed with spy glasses.<\/p>\n

\"GennaroGennaro Sangiuliano Roberto Monaldo\/LaPresse<\/p>\n

\"MariaMaria Rosaria Boccia was said to have been disappointed not to be given a job by the culture minister<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

Giuli, a 50-year-old former journalist who in his youth belonged to the neofascist group Meridiano Zero in Rome, was brought in by Meloni \u2014 who likewise emerged from the Eternal City<\/a>\u2019s hard-right youth scene \u2014 after serving a period as president of Rome\u2019s Maxxi museum of contemporary art.<\/p>\n

Teased by the media for his dandyish dress sense and abstruse speeches, Giuli has attempted to stage a ministerial reset. He launched a ticketing app with a jazzy video showcasing heritage to the strains of the pop legend Raffaella Carr\u00e0, and framed a recently inaugurated Piacenza exhibition of traditional and contemporary African art as \u201ccultural diplomacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Like previous ministers, Giuli has secured the restitution of objects that were stolen from Italy and illegally exported abroad. <\/p>\n

During this week\u2019s New York trip, the Manhattan district attorney handed over 17 precious objects, including golden Etruscan earrings and two cups from Pompeii. <\/p>\n

In one spectacular return last year, a Roman erotic mosaic, which depicts a man paying a prostitute and that had been stolen by the Nazis, was returned to Italy after more than 80 years.<\/p>\n

\"AncientThe Roman mosaic, depicting a half-naked couple, is displayed at the Pompeii Archaeological Park in ItalyPOMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL park\/ministry of culture\/Reuters<\/p>\n

But the minister has prioritised the art purchases in a year in which museum staff across the country have protested against \u201ccritical\u201d staff shortages. The culture minister has been guided by a panel of experts on the purchases.<\/p>\n

\"PaintingEcce Homo<\/p>\n

Ecce Homo, which features a Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by Antonello on its back, will be shown at Rome\u2019s Palazzo Minerva for 11 days from Friday, before touring cities including L\u2019Aquila, Messina, Florence and Rome. <\/p>\n

The Caravaggio portrait will enter the permanent collection of the Palazzo Barberini, a former residence turned museum commissioned by the subject of the painting, Maffeo Barberini, where it was first temporarily displayed in November 2024.<\/p>\n

Fabrizio Moretti, the gallerist who mediated between the work\u2019s owners and the ministry for the purchase of the Antonello, said that the owner had been convinced to accept the ministry\u2019s offer because it was close to the upper estimate offered by Sotheby\u2019s. He predicted it could have been sold for about \u00a315 million at auction.<\/p>\n

Some have questioned the wisdom of spending such high sums on art. Tomaso Montanari, part of the commission that advised the ministry, said that while he welcomed the purchase of such important works, he feared the ministry would have to divert funds from essential services, including protecting heritage sites from earthquakes. He added: \u201cOn the one hand, I\u2019m pleased, but on the other, it\u2019s clear that the money has been taken away from something else.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standing in the grand hall of Sotheby\u2019s auction house in New York, Italy\u2019s culture minister proudly admired a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-358050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}