"Who says it's Prime Minister Meloni? You have to say it. The parish priest didn't say it, he said she looks like her."

Restorer Bruno Valentinetti told journalists and video reporters at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, dismissing the controversy surrounding the fact that the work he restored inside the basilica bears the likeness of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

«For this face», says Valentinetti, « I did a restoration and I restored what was there before 25 years ago, the same, I had to take up the designs and colours from 25 years ago, it must not be changed».

However, he admits, "I created the work at 25. To the controversies, I reply that it's all inventions."

Meanwhile the case has exploded.

"It's clear that the artist intervened. We had absolutely no knowledge of the matter or the author's intentions, and we were not informed. We are now trying to investigate what happened," said the diocese of Rome, which had expressed surprise at the news this morning.

The Democratic Party group leader in the Chamber of Deputies' Culture Committee, Irene Manzi, is demanding that " Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli immediately contact the Rome Superintendency. What has emerged is unacceptable. The suggestion that restoration work on a protected property could have produced an image attributable to a contemporary face represents a potential and serious violation of the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code, which prohibits arbitrary alterations, customizations, and interventions not strictly based on scientific and historical-artistic criteria." The Five Star Movement (M5S) is of the same opinion.

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)