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.



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.