Italy investigates church painting of angel restored to look like Meloni

The culture ministry said it had instructed Rome's top art heritage official to carry ⁠out a ‌same-day inspection of ⁠the restored painting before "deciding what to do next". The opposition Five Star Movement complained: "We cannot allow art and ‍culture to risk becoming a tool for propaganda or anything else, regardless of whether the ​face depicted is that of the prime minister." The parish priest, Daniele Micheletti, ⁠told ANSA news agency that the decorations in the chapel had recently been touched up following water damage.

An angel in a church in central Rome has been restored to look like Italian Prime ‌Minister Giorgia Meloni, a national newspaper reported on Saturday, prompting the culture ministry to investigate and Meloni to laugh off the ⁠affair. In a front-page story, la Repubblica daily was the first to note that one of two angels in a chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina ​had been altered to resemble the 49-year-old conservative, Italy's first female prime minister.

The ‍article ran with before-and-after pictures of the painting. It said the angel had previously looked like a "generic cherub". The culture ministry said it had instructed Rome's top art heritage official to carry ⁠out a ‌same-day inspection of ⁠the restored painting before "deciding what to do next".

The opposition Five Star Movement complained: "We cannot allow art and ‍culture to risk becoming a tool for propaganda or anything else, regardless of whether the ​face depicted is that of the prime minister." The parish priest, Daniele Micheletti, ⁠told ANSA news agency that the decorations in the chapel had recently been touched up following water damage. ⁠The originals dated only to 2000, so were not under any heritage protection.

The restoration was carried out by the same artist who created the original painting, ⁠Bruno Valentinetti. He disputed the suggestion he had altered the image, telling reporters: "I restored what ⁠was there ‌before... 25 years ago". As for Meloni, she posted a picture of the disputed painting on Instagram, with the caption "No, I ⁠definitely don't look like an angel", with a laughing emoji.