«I am chosen for merit and competence. My first act? Restoring dignity to the Rondanini Pietà »- Corriere.it

Vittorio Sgarbi, had a government post as Undersecretary for Culture: did you expect it?
«Calculating that the figure indicated by Meloni for the appointments are merit and competence, well … I have fifty years of studying the history of art and thirty-two of politics behind me».

He goes back to the same chair where he sat twenty years ago. What does he plan to do first?
«To restore dignity to Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini which has problems of preparation. They removed it from the historical setting and put it in an anonymous room, a very vulgar lack of respect for a masterpiece ».

And then?
“Many things. Also allow the Palazzo Ducale of Modena to be called Palazzo Ducale. Now you can not even put a sign that rebel. Unlikely things ».

Apart from the first interventions, do you have an overall strategy in mind?
“Yes, conservation.”

What do you mean?
“Just the conservation. We must preserve, not move, alter, upset, destroy ».

What are you referring to?
«A landscape protected by article 9 is sacred. You can’t put photovoltaics in place of dry stone walls. Just as you cannot destroy Tuscia by putting photovoltaic fields in place of the vine and the olive tree. There are fundamental principles that must be respected. It is necessary to preserve it in the most complete, most radical way possible. Then, in the context of cultural heritage, conservation has a totally positive meaning ».

What it means ?
«The word conservative is a word linked to a world of values ​​but it is biased. Instead, the word conservation is different: art is neither right nor left. At the ministry Gennaro Sangiuliano is conservative in the most ideological sense while I am conservative in the proper sense of the term ».

You ran your entire election campaign in Bologna, where you were a candidate and lost. Will he do something for the city too?
«Of course, in Bologna there are many things to do, the Pinacoteca, the city museum. But for Bologna we must insist on having the patronage of Unesco not only for the arcades of San Luca, so dear to Pierferdinando Casini ».

And what else for?
«For the whole city, which has a formidable tradition with Niccolò dell’Arca, Carracci. Bologna must become the capital of Unesco, a World Heritage Site ».

I return to the initial question: did you expect this appointment?
«I was in the quota of Noi moderati and Giorgia Meloni chose mine from among the names indicated by that political group. Thank you”.