- The face of the cherub on the fresco was covered over to resemble Prime Minister Meloni.
- According to the restaurateur Valentinetti, this appearance was created on purpose.
- The Diocese of Rome and the Ministry of Culture launched an investigation.
- In the future, it is necessary to obtain several permits for new forms of frescoes.
The face of a cherub in a fresco in the Basilica of Saint Lawrence in Lucina, which bore a striking resemblance to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was covered over at the request of church authorities, the AP agency reported on Thursday night, writes TASR. The fresco, which has attracted the attention of tourists and locals since last weekend, has only the body visible – the face of the cherub has been covered by a thick layer of paint or plaster.
According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, which published a photo of an angel in the likeness of Meloni on its front page last Saturday, restaurateur Bruno Valentinetti covered his face at the request of the church authorities. In the meantime, Valentinetti admitted that he created the face of the cherub after the prime minister, but did not state the reason.
Both the Diocese of Rome and the Italian Ministry of Culture launched investigations after the photo of the fresco was published. The original painting of the cherub was from 2000, so it is a modern painting, not a historical heritage. However, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, who is the Pope’s vicar for Rome, emphasized that political figures have no place in church art.
After this event, the Ministry of Culture set the rules for the future: if the basilica administration plans to have the angel’s face painted again, it will need permission from the state, the Roman diocese and the monuments office for Rome, while the request must include a sketch of the work’s future appearance.
Valentinetti painted the cherub during the renovation of the basilica’s chapel in 2000, when a bust of the last Italian king, Umberto II, was installed there. The angel held a map of Italy and appeared to be kneeling before the king. After the basilica was damaged by rising water in 2023, the fresco was restored and Meloni’s face appeared on it.
The investigation was to determine what the original angel looked like so that the image could be restored. Meloni took the whole incident with humor. “No, I certainly don’t look like an angel,” she wrote over the weekend in a post on social networks, which she added with a laughing emoticon.
