Sgarbi risks trial, investigations closed: a painting stolen from Buriasco Castle has also surfaced
The investigations for Vittorio Sgarbi, accused of money laundering and counterfeiting, have been closed. And a new story has emerged, linked to a painting found in the possession of the critic (and retouched) which turns out to be the one stolen on February 14, 2013 in the Buriasco castle, in the Turin area
ROME – The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Macerata has formally closed the investigation into Vittorio Sgarbi, investigated for money laundering of cultural goods, counterfeiting of works of art and self-laundering of cultural goods. The investigative activity conducted by the Operational Department of the Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, originates from some statements made by the former Brescia restorer of the Cavallini-Sgarbi family, initially collected in the context of another trial file and then merged into the present proceeding, which determined the opening of a new investigative aspect concerning the work depicting ‘The capture of Saint Peter‘, attributed to the Sienese painter Rutilio Manetti, received and restored by the freelancer between 2015 and 2016 on behalf of Vittorio Sgarbi.
THE THEFT OF FEBRUARY 2013 AT THE CASTLE OF BURIASCO
From preliminary investigations, the Carabinieri Tpc hypothesized that the painting could correspond to the one registered in the Database of illegally stolen works of art, used by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, as the proceeds of the theft committed by unknown persons on 14 February 2013 at a castle in Buriasco (in the province of Turin) to the detriment of a private citizen.
The outcome of the search carried out on the art critic, during which the work was found, was decisive by Manetti and also the 3D copy of the same work, also proceeding to seize the frame, the canvas and the fragments of canvas left by the perpetrators of the theft at the Buriasco castle, elements subsequently submitted to the attention of the technical consultant.
As confirmed by the technical report drawn up by the expert, appointed among the specialized personnel of the Central Institute for Restoration of Rome (Icr), the restored work, compared with the fragments of the painting, the images acquired in the trial documents and recorded in the Tpc Database, was found to be the one stolen in Buriasco, although the painting had the addition of a torch in the pictorial section in the upper left part of the canvas.
FOR THE INVESTIGATORS SGARBI ORDERED THE RETOUCHING
The investigations have therefore made it possible to establish that the ‘maquillage’ operation had been commissioned directly by Vittorio Sgarbi to the painter Pasquale Frongia, contradicting the version publicly provided by the art critic on the provenance of the painting, namely the casual discovery of the work inside “Villa Maidalchina” in Viterbo, purchased by his family in 2000.
The results of the technical-scientific investigations have highlighted, in fact, that the painting in question coincides, in terms of materials, execution technique and morphology of the degradation, with the fragments delivered by the theft report. The same technical consultant also found the correlation of the assembly scheme of the pieces of canvas on which the painting was made with the fragments present on the frame, the perfect superposition of the edges of the canvas with those still present on the frame, and also the correspondence of the fragment that came off at the time of the theft in the Buriasco castle with the design of the painting.
With regard to any changes or additions made to the original pictorial layout, the ICR expert ascertained that in the upper left part of the painting new pictorial elements had been created using industrially produced pigments, namely the lit torch, the light around it and the layers that define the outline of the column.
The investigative framework was completed thanks to the technical activities and the statements made by the painter Pasquale Frongia during the relevant interrogation, during which he admitted to having created the torch on the painting on behalf of Vittorio Sgarbi.
The investigation activity also made it possible to ascertain that at the exhibition ‘The Painters of Light, from Caravaggio to Paolini‘, curated by Sgarbi himself and set up in Lucca at the former Cavallerizza from December 2021 to October 2022, instead of the original work, the 3D copy made by the G-Lab printing laboratory in Correggio (RE) was exhibited, commissioned by the aforementioned art critic. This circumstance was confirmed by the technical investigations carried out by the Carabinieri Scientific Investigations Group of the Carabinieri. The notice of conclusion of the preliminary investigations issued by this office has already been notified to the suspect and his trusted lawyers.