Rome church angel ‘restored to look like Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’ | EUROtoday
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An angel in a church in central Rome has been restored to appear like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a nationwide newspaper has reported.
The allegation has prompted a tradition ministry investigation.
Ms Meloni, in the meantime, is laughing off the affair.
La Repubblica each day first highlighted the alteration on its entrance web page, saying that considered one of two angels in a chapel on the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina now bore the likeness of the 49-year-old conservative, who’s Italy’s first feminine prime minister.
The article featured before-and-after photographs, noting that the angel had beforehand appeared as a “generic cherub”.
The tradition ministry mentioned that it had instructed Rome’s chief artwork heritage official to conduct an instantaneous inspection of the restored portray, forward of figuring out additional steps.
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, instructed the ANSA information company that the decorations within the chapel had lately been touched up following water injury.
The originals dated solely to 2000, so weren’t beneath any heritage safety.
The restoration was carried out by the identical artist who created the unique portray, Bruno Valentinetti.
He disputed the suggestion he had altered the picture, telling reporters: “I restored what was there before… 25 years ago.”
As for Ms Meloni, she posted an image of the disputed portray on Instagram, with the caption “No, I definitely don’t look like an angel”, with a laughing emoji.
Ms Meloni, who leads probably the most right-wing authorities in Italy for the reason that Second World War, is a Roman Catholic and has publicly aligned herself with conventional Christian values.
She ceaselessly makes use of the motto “Dio, patria, famiglia” (God, fatherland, household).
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/meloni-angel-rome-church-b2911524.html