Undersecretary Sgarbi being probed for self-laundering

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 9 - Culture Undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi is being investigated for the alleged self-laundering of cultural assets, Macerata Giovanni Fabrizio Narbone said on Tuesday.
    The statement was made after daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that Sgarbi, a volatile art critic, was being probed over a work by Baroque painter Rutilio di Lorenzo Manetti that was stolen from Castello di Buriasco, in Piedmont, in 2013.
    The report said the painting allegedly reappeared in Lucca in 2021 in the guise of of a newly discovered work belonging to Sgarbi. The undersecretary says he was innocent on Tuesday.
    "I have not had a notification of an investigation," Sgarbi said.
    "I don't know how I could be investigation for a theft I have not done and for a crime committed 11 years ago in circumstances not cleared by investigators at the time.
    "It is the umpteenth defamation. Il Fatto Quotidiano is lying again". (ANSA).