The Court of Auditors has acquitted Vittorio Sgarbi of the charge of causing financial loss to the state through the 121 professional services he performed while serving as undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture. The news was reported by Clemente Pistilli in *La Repubblica*. Specifically, the audit judges rejected the request made by the prosecutors, who had sought to have the art critic and politician ordered to pay over 200,000 euros in compensation to the very ministry he officially represented.
According to the Court’s ruling, in the engagements at issue, Sgarbi addressed topics related to ancient history—a subject that did not fall within the scope of the authority formally granted to him—and essentially limited himself to exercising fundamental rights and freedoms protected by both the Italian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Based on these grounds, the Court of Auditors further ordered the Ministry of Culture to pay Sgarbi the sum of 3,500 euros to cover the legal fees incurred during the proceedings.
The investigation into Sgarbi concerned possible connections between his institutional role and the numerous professional activities he carried out while serving as undersecretary—activities which, according to the charges, were conducted without the necessary authorization, in violation of applicable laws and the duties associated with his public office. The charges stemmed from the provision prohibiting government officials from engaging in activities that could potentially interfere with the impartiality and effectiveness of public action.
After indicting Sgarbi, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Financial Crimes had filed with the court, along with the relevant invoices, the contracts entered into by companies linked to the art critic with both public and private entities, through which payments were made for cultural services rendered by the undersecretary. The judges, however, found that there was insufficient evidence to prove unlawful conduct on Sgarbi’s part that would have caused actual damage to the state treasury.
The Court of Auditors also emphasized that the Prosecutor’s Office failed to demonstrate that Sgarbi was aware that his professional activities could hinder the fulfillment of the institutional duties associated with his office, and that they therefore impaired the proper performance of public service, to the extent that the receipt of allowances associated with his office would be considered improper. The judges also noted that Sgarbi himself demonstrated—without the Prosecutor’s Office providing evidence to the contrary—that during the period under investigation, he had carried out a particularly significant number of public activities directly related to his institutional role.
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| The Court of Auditors Clears Sgarbi: No Financial Loss to the Treasury Resulted from the Conferences Held While He Was Undersecretary |
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