the Milan Cups, the diamonds and three camels – Corriere.it

On paper, and evidently destined to remain there, there are also three camels, a personal gift from Gaddafi that was never collected from the Tripoli zoo, where the three specimens lived before the Colonel’s dismissal. Probably they have not survived the passage of time and the fall of the Libyan regime. Contrary to the gigantic bed, in the judicial papers of the old investigation of the Bari prosecutor’s office identified as Latvian, tribute from Vladimir Putin, who lived in the Roman residence of Palazzo Grazioli and who probably, after the move, was transferred to Villa Grande, the house that had been Franco Zeffirelli’s last domicile in the capital.

All this, and much more, is part of the lleast enlightened ate of Silvio Berlusconi’s legacy. Everything that lies beyond Fininvest, Mediaset, Mondadori, the stake in Mediolanum, real estate, the political legacy in Forza Italia and the Italian center-right. They are boats, works of art, even objects cheap which over the years, especially after the death of the rightful owner, have acquired a historical value decidedly higher than the market value. Like, for example, the five replicas of the Champions Cup won by the president of Milan and considered, by the former Prime Minister, one of the first things to show when, in life, he delighted in acting as a Cicero to those who went to visit Villa San Martino for the first time.

All this, in principle, can be joined the
testamentary bequest and compose separate chapters of the same, even be dismembered from where it is at present. Starting with the works of art from various sources, including the tens of thousands of paintings – there was talk of twenty thousand units, but many were given away over the years to friends and parliamentarians – purchased over the phone at television auctions. Many portraits, many Venices, an indefinite quantity of landscapes, some of uncertain origin, others attributed to a school. In this bouquet of indefinite number and value there are some rare pearls, which raise the total value of the collection – according to an estimate by Vittorio Sgarbi – to around ten million euros, obviously if everything is sold individually.

Among these pieces, in the book Discoveries and revelations, recently released for La Nave di Teseo, Sgarbi surveys a portrait of Anna Fallarino by Piero Annigoni, a valuable piece from the Casati Stampa collection that was inside Villa San Martino before the residence was purchased by Berlusconi. Work of a certain historical importance, together with many photographic portraits of unidentified men together with the woman and her husband Camillo Casati Stampa, who before committing suicide killed her together with her lover in August 1970 in what went down in history as the crime in Via Puccini. In the art gallery adjacent to the room of Berlusconi’s collaborators there should be a painting by Titian depicting a De’ Medici heir, purchased years ago by the Cleveland Museum. While, returning to the house, there is a nude Gioconda attributed to Bernardino Luini and a copy of Parmigianino’s Antea (the original is in the Louvre). In Villa Gernetto, where part of the artistic heritage bought at teleshopping is located, there is also a valuable piece, a 19th century painting by Francesco Coghetti; and if it hadn’t been illegally uprooted before the Villa passed into the hands of Berlusconi, there would also have been a sculpture by Canova, then admirably rescued from illegality by an intervention by Sgarbi, who traced it back to Palermo, had it placed on a bond of Cultural Heritage and prevented its sale.

Counting the boats is much simpler. Among these, the Princess VaiVia, a 42-metre sailboat; the Morning Glory, 48 long; the Magnum 70, which is powered instead. This alone is worth more than twenty million euros.

The Political Diary newsletter

If you want to stay updated on political news, subscribe to the newsletter “Political Diary”. It is dedicated to Corriere della Sera subscribers and arrives twice a week at 12. Just click here.