Italy's Junior Culture Minister Quits after Stolen Painting Scandal

Forza Italia party leader Silvio Berlusconi (L) talks to candidate Nello Musumeci (C) and Vittorio Sgarbi (R) at the end of a rally for the regional election in Palermo, Italy, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Forza Italia party leader Silvio Berlusconi (L) talks to candidate Nello Musumeci (C) and Vittorio Sgarbi (R) at the end of a rally for the regional election in Palermo, Italy, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
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Italy's Junior Culture Minister Quits after Stolen Painting Scandal

Forza Italia party leader Silvio Berlusconi (L) talks to candidate Nello Musumeci (C) and Vittorio Sgarbi (R) at the end of a rally for the regional election in Palermo, Italy, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Forza Italia party leader Silvio Berlusconi (L) talks to candidate Nello Musumeci (C) and Vittorio Sgarbi (R) at the end of a rally for the regional election in Palermo, Italy, November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Italian junior culture minister and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, under investigation over possession of a stolen painting, said on Friday he was quitting because Rome's antitrust body was trying to curb his unofficial duties.

Sgarbi, 71, is a long-serving parliamentarian and outspoken TV personality.

Sgarbi has been under pressure to resign for weeks over the painting scandal, but said he was quitting "to avoid a conflict of interest" before beginning a lecture on Renaissance artist Michelangelo in Milan, Reuters reported.

Sgarbi said the antitrust authority, which is investigating him over a possible conflict of interest, had informed him he should not attend an art conference.

He told his audience he had decided to preserve his freedom rather than respect its instructions.

"According to the antitrust notice, I should not talk about art, I should not deal with art. I should be a junior minister dealing with administrative duties, and limited ones," he said.

He attacked Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano for not backing him over what Sgarbi said were "anonymous letters" to the ministry alleging he was accepting payments for non-ministerial duties, in a breach of regulations.

Prosecutors are investigating the politician, whose brief includes protecting the country's cultural heritage, over his ownership of a 17th century painting that police say was stolen from a castle near Turin in 2013. He denies all wrongdoing.



Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)

A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.

The Sado gold and silver mines, now a popular tourist attraction, are believed to have started operating as early as the 12th century and produced until after World War II.

Japan had put a case for World Heritage listing because of their lengthy history and the artisanal mining techniques used there at a time when European mines had turned to mechanization.

The proposal was opposed by Seoul when it was first put because of the use of involuntary Korean labor during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula.

UNESCO confirmed the listing of the mines at its ongoing committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday after a bid highlighting its archaeological preservation of "mining activities and social and labor organization".

"I would like to wholeheartedly welcome the inscription... and pay sincere tribute to the long-standing efforts of the local people which made this possible," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a statement.

The World Heritage effort was years in the making, inspired in part by the successful recognition of a silver mine in western Japan's Shimane region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had agreed to the listing "on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendation... to reflect the 'full history' at the Sado Gold Mine site and takes proactive measures to that end."

Historians have argued that recruitment conditions at the mine effectively amounted to forced labor, and that Korean workers faced significantly harsher conditions than their Japanese counterparts.

"Discrimination did exist," Toyomi Asano, a professor of history of Japanese politics at Tokyo's Waseda University, told AFP in 2022.

"Their working conditions were very bad and dangerous. The most dangerous jobs were allocated to them."

Also added to the list on Saturday was the Beijing Central Axis, a collection of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.

The UNESCO committee meeting runs until Wednesday.