Italian prosecutors said on Tuesday they were investigating a junior culture minister over allegations a painting he owned and exhibited had been stolen and modified to hide its origins -- claims he denies.
Vittorio Sgarbi, a well-known art historian and critic appointed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is under investigation for allegedly obscuring the fact that a work of art was obtained illegally, the prosecutor's office in Macerata, central Italy, told AFP.
The news follows a report by broadcaster RAI into a painting Sgarbi had featured in a 2021 exhibition. The work was by Italian artist Rutilio Manetti, who died in 1639, and was nearly identical to one stolen in 2013.
The owner of "The Capture of St Peter" reported its theft from her castle to police at the time, saying it had been cut from the frame, according to a December episode of RAI's Report programme.
She said that a few weeks before the theft, someone had visited asking to buy the painting -- a man that RAI identified as a friend of Sgarbi's.
Later that year, the man delivered a torn canvas of a painting to a restoration expert who told RAI it was the same painting stolen from the castle and exhibited in 2021.
There was one difference between the two canvases -- the painting exhibited by Sgarbi had a candle in the top left corner, which the restorer claimed had been added.
Sgarbi denies any wrongdoing, saying he found the painting in a villa purchased by his mother in 2000, a home where former pope Innocent X used to spend his holidays in the 17th century.
"There is no mystery. There are two paintings," he told Mediaset's "Quarta Repubblica" programme on Monday evening.
He insisted he owned the original painting and the work stolen in 2013 had, in fact, been a "bad copy" made in the 19th century.
The minister said the restorer had alleged the painting brought to him was the stolen one because Sgarbi owed him money and he had gone to the media "for revenge".
Separately, Italy's antitrust body opened an investigation into Sgarbi in October for his alleged acceptance of lucrative fees for appearing at cultural events.