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Vittorio Sgarbi

The Honourable
Vittorio Sgarbi
Vittorio Sgarbi at Eataly Smeraldo Milano.jpg
Member of the Italian Chamber
In office
27 March 1994 – 9 April 2006
Constituency Calabria, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto
Mayor of Salemi
In office
30 June 2008 – 15 February 2012
Preceded by Biagio Mastrantoni
Succeeded by Domenico Venuti
Assessor to the Culture of Milan
In office
30 May 2006 – 8 May 2008
Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage
In office
11 June 2001 – 25 June 2002
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
Personal details
Born (1952-05-08) 8 May 1952 (age 65)
Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Political party Italian Socialist Party
(1990–1992)
Italian Liberal Party
(1992–1994)
Forza Italia
(1994–1999)
Liberal Sgarbi
(1999–2006)
Consumers' List
(2006)
Revolution Party
(2012)
People's Agreement
(2013)
Renaissance
(2017–present)
Profession Art critic, professor, writer
Website Official website

Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi (born 8 May 1952 in Ferrara) is an Italian art critic, art historian, politician, cultural commentator and television personality. On 1996 he was condamned for fraud against the Italian State and on 2012 he stopped to be Mayor of Salemi because of Mafia infiltration. He was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Several times a member of the Italian Parliament, he served also in Milan's municipal government.

His Sgarbi Quotidiani (Daily Sgarbi) TV show during the 1990s was a 15-minute daily discussion of current events. During some of those shows he furiously attacked some Italian judges during the Tangentopoli corruption scandal. This scandal led to great turmoil in Italian politics, with the fall of many traditional parties and the subsequent rise of Silvio Berlusconi, subsequently himself convicted of tax fraud. Sgarbi attacked the use of preventive detention in prison; he declared that many people had been arrested without a proper warrant and that some innocent people had been unjustly accused.

Although he has strongly defended the role of Catholicism as a foundation of Italian culture, he defines himself as an atheist. On ethical issues — for example, that of euthanasia or in the case of Eluana Englaro, whose life was artificially prolonged by 17 years in a vegetative coma, he sided with the Catholic Church. He has also declared his opposition not just to gay marriage but to marriage in general. He has a younger sister, Elisabetta Sgarbi, an Italian film producer and writer.


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