Sgarbi facing trial over 'stolen painting'

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 25 - Former culture undersecretary and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi is facing a possible trial over a painting that was allegedly stolen and then allegedly altered to try to disguise its provenance.
    Prosecutors in Marche capital Macerata have wound up their probe into the pianting, stolen from a northern Italian castle in 2013 and later allegedly found among Sgarbi's possession with the addition of a torch to allegedly make it look like it was not the stolen work, il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper reported Friday.
    It said Sgarbi, 72, a famously volatile polemicist as well as one of Italy's top art critics and art historians, risked 4-12 years in jail in the case.
    According to il Fatto, a notorious forger, Pasquale Frongia, has admitted to prosecutors that he added the torch to the painting at Sgarbi's bidding.
    Sgrabi, who quit his ministerial post in February after Italy's antitrust authority said that his private conferences and other lucrative activities were incompatible with his role as culture undersecretary, said Friday that "I have full trust in the judges and I will prove my innocence". (ANSA).