No one will be held responsible for compensation, but many may be responsible for what the Court of Auditors has described as "serious and irreversible" damage to the history and memory of Sardinia. The Regional Prosecutor's Office has estimated the damage at nearly €200 million. In the ruling that acquitted, for lack of malice, the owner of the company that managed the Regional Council's archive and library, which were destroyed in a fire that devastated the company's warehouse in Uta on January 28, 2022, the Treasury judges used harsh language to summarize the events and the omissions that may have contributed to the loss of original documents of inestimable historical value.
The responsibilities
"An additional consideration remains in the background, which arises spontaneously and immediately," reads the final commentary on the Court's decision, presided over by Judge Donata Cabras (with councilors Tommaso Parisi and Valeria Mistretta on her side): "A heritage of cultural assets of unique and inestimable value, including the Regional Council archive, established since 1949 and embodying the identity, roots, history, and very memory of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia and its proud community, to be handed down intact to future generations so that they can reconstruct their past at any time, should have been protected and preserved with extreme rigor and attention as a preventative measure through a series of targeted, timely, sudden, penetrating, and assiduous checks, given that the defendant's conduct represents only the last link in the multifaceted causal chain, centered on various actions and omissions, which, in the absence of early remedial action, has caused the extremely serious and irreversible damage." From a legal perspective, however, the Court of Auditors reiterated the need to acquit Maria Ignazia Mameli, owner of Sisar, under the "State Shield" introduced in 2020: a rule that requires proof of intent (intent) to cause the damages in order for a judgment to be awarded, which in this case was lacking.
