Italy investigates church painting of angel restored

An angel in a church in central Rome has been restored to look like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a national newspaper reported on Saturday, prompting the culture ministry to investigate and Meloni to laugh off the affair.



In a front-page story, la Repubblica daily was the first ⁠to note that one of two angels in a chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina had been altered to resemble the 49-year-old conservative, Italy's first female prime minister.



The article ran with before-and-after pictures ⁠of the painting.



It said the angel had previously looked like a "generic cherub".



The culture ministry said it had instructed Rome's top art heritage official to carry out a same-day inspection of the restored painting before "deciding what to do next".



The opposition Five Star Movement complained: "We cannot allow art ⁠and culture to risk becoming a tool for propaganda or anything else, regardless of whether the face depicted is that of the prime minister."



The parish priest, Daniele Micheletti, said that the decorations in the chapel had recently been touched up following water damage.



The originals dated only to 2000, so were not under any heritage protection.