Silvia Stellacci, nicole winfield and Trisha Tomas
Rome: Call it divine intervention, or perhaps just a rushed repair job to end days of speculation and scandal. But the end result is that Angel Meloni no longer exists.
A painting of a cherub with a face that bears a striking resemblance to that of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had drawn large crowds to the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, one of the oldest basilicas in Rome. That angel’s face had disappeared when the church opened its doors on Wednesday, Rome time: the cherub’s body remains, but the face was erased with a careless slab of paint or plaster.
The Republic The newspaper, which broke the story when it published the Meloni-style angel on its front page, said the restorer responsible for making the Meloni cherub had covered it up overnight at the request of church authorities.
Restaurateur Bruno Valentinetti admitted to the newspaper that he had designed the angel in Meloni, but did not say why.
The diocese of Rome and the Italian Ministry of Culture launched investigations after the publication of the cherub image.
The original painting only dates from the year 2000, so there is no damage to the historical heritage of the church. But Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Pope’s vicar in Rome, insisted that a political figure had no place in ecclesiastical art.
The commotion gave the basilica new celebrity status, with curious locals and tourists lining up to photograph the Meloni cherub, sometimes interrupting the mass.
In a statement issued on Wednesday Rome time, the Ministry of Culture laid out the rules for the future: If the basilica plans to repaint the angel’s face, it will need prior authorization from the government, which owns the church, from the diocese of Rome, which administers it, and from the Ministry of Culture’s special superintendence for Rome.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Ministry of Culture said the permit application must be “accompanied by a sketch of the image.”
Valentinetti first made the cherub in 2000, when one of the basilica’s front chapels was renovated to include a bust of Italy’s last king, Umberto II. Included in the decoration was a cherub holding a map of Italy, apparently kneeling before the king.
The cherub was restored after water leaks damaged the basilica beginning in 2023, and emerged with the face of Meloni.
The investigations that began were to identify what the original cherub from the year 2000 looked like, with the aim of restoring the painting to that image. The faceless cherub seen on Wednesday appeared to be a temporary solution to erase Meloni’s image from the work.
The Italian prime minister had downplayed the issue. “No, I definitely don’t look like an angel,” Meloni wrote on social media over the weekend with a laughing-crying emoji alongside a work photo.
AP
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