Cagliari, returns to the Municipality (after 11 years) the fairytale clock donated by the sultan to Zedda

After 11 years, an automatic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch in pink gold and sapphires becomes the property of the Municipality of Cagliari . Estimated value: 58,500 euros . The wrist jewel, which incidentally also tells the time, was donated in 2012 by the Sultan of Oman, who was visiting the city, to the then mayor Massimo Zedda . The point on which the story has gravitated for years is: was it handed over to the mayor Massimo Zedda, or to Massimo Zedda an ordinary citizen?
The reconstruction is contained in a resolution just approved by the council of Palazzo Bacaredda, now led by Paolo Truzzu. The object of the deed is "donation acceptance", because the asset is of particular value and the deed is necessary in these cases. But the process was quite troubled.
To understand, we need to go back a bit. To 2012 , when the rich Sultan Qaboos Bin Said is in port with his fabulous yacht. As usual according to Middle Eastern tradition and culture, he gives a gift of high value to the representative of the institution of the city that has welcomed him. Zedda, who wore the tricolor band, is holding the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak automatic in pink gold and sapphires. Stuff for very rich enthusiasts. He keeps it until the end of his mandate, in 2019. When he tries to conquer the Region, but the victory goes to Christian Solinas. And the clock?
Talk about it again in 2020 . Zedda himself brings up the subject in an interview with L'Unione Sarda: here he claims to have received it as Massimo Zedda, and not as mayor . But that in any case in the previous August he had sent a request for clarification to the Municipality, which had come under Truzzu's control since June, to find out what to do, given that through a notary he had decided to donate the jewel to the administration . In July, also in 2019, he also requested an appraisal from the well-known Cagliari jeweler Floris Coroneo. Answer: 58,500 euros.
The recently approved resolution states that the Municipality, having learned of the story from the press, "has decided to subordinate the acceptance to a verification of the reasons for this gift, i.e. if they can be traced back to the person or to the role held at the time as a representative of the Municipality of Cagliari, also in consideration that this last circumstance, if ascertained, would have relieved the Municipality of the burden of formalizing the acceptance".
This is followed by three requests for clarification sent to Zedda (February 2020, September 2021 and July 2022), with which "this administration invited Mr. Massimo Zedda to specify whether the asset had been donated to him personally or in his capacity as mayor".
The answer comes in January of this year. The former mayor reiterates that “the object is a gift from the Sultan of Oman. At the time it was made clear and unequivocally reiterated that it was a gift to me and not to the Municipality, so much so that the address of my private home was asked for the delivery. The donation of the said asset, in favor of the Municipality, originates precisely in the traceability of the same to my person".
Having clarified this, the junta decided to accept the watch . Who returns to (or enters) Palazzo Bacaredda after eleven years, a deceased sultan in the meantime.