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In a curious twist of art and politics, an angel in the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina, Rome, has become the center of attention. During a recent restoration of the Chapel of the Holy Souls of Purgatory, the angel’s face was transformed into a likeness bearing a striking resemblance to Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Though the restoration work was completed late last year, this unusual alteration only gained widespread attention over the weekend. The buzz started when social media users shared before-and-after photographs, highlighting the uncanny change in the angel’s visage.
Bruno Valentinetti, the volunteer responsible for the restoration, initially refuted any deliberate resemblance to the prime minister. He claimed that the facial features were simply replicated from existing drawings. However, the resemblance was too striking to go unnoticed by the public.
In response to the controversy, Valentinetti was asked to obscure his work. This intervention resulted in the angel’s face now being obscured by a ghostly white blur, leaving a different kind of mystery on the chapel wall.
Valentinetti was tasked with smudging out his work, which has left a ghost-like white blob on the angel’s body.
“I covered it up because the Vatican told me to,” he told La Repubblica.
The Vatican has not weighed in publicly on the controversy.
The culture ministry, which ordered an investigation earlier this week, put out a statement on Wednesday about the removal of the image, saying that works in churches in Rome had to be pre-approved with drawings for proposed changes.
“In light of the removal of the face from the decoration in the chapel of the crucifix of San Lorenzo in Lucina, in agreement with the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, the Special Superintendent of Rome, Daniela Porro, has informed the rector of the Basilica that any restoration work requires a request for authorisation from the Ministry of the Interior’s Fund for Places of Worship, which owns the property, the Vicariate, and the Special Superintendency of Rome, attaching a sketch of the image,” the ministry wrote in a statement posted on its website.
Hundreds of visitors have visited the chapel in recent days to take photos of the image, the parish priest Father Daniele Micheletti said.
“I’ve always said that if it had created divisions, I would have had it removed,” he told Sky Italia.
“From a regulatory standpoint, the painting could have remained there for a hundred years, but it has created too many divisions in the church.”
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