{"id":12749,"date":"2026-04-06T13:56:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/12749\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:56:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:56:02","slug":"the-face-of-a-cherub-resembling-italian-premier-giorgia-meloni-is-painted-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/12749\/","title":{"rendered":"The face of a cherub resembling Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni is painted over"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME (AP) \u2014 Call it divine intervention, or maybe just a hasty fix-it job to put an end to days of speculation and scandal. But the end result is that the Angel Meloni<\/a> is no more.<\/p>\n

A painting of a cherub with a face bearing a remarkable resemblance to Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni had attracted large crowds to the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, one of the oldest basilicas in Rome. That angel\u2019s face was gone when the church opened its doors Wednesday: the cherub\u2019s body remains, but the face was erased with a sloppy slab of paint or plaster.<\/p>\n

La Repubblica newspaper, which broke the story Saturday when it published the Meloni-esque angel on its front page, said the restorer responsible for making the Meloni cherub had covered it up overnight at the request of church authorities.<\/p>\n

Restorer Bruno Valentinetti admitted to the paper that he had styled the angel on Meloni, but didn\u2019t say why. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n A detail of a fresco inside the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, in Rome, shows a cherub bearing a striking resemblance to Premier Giorgia Meloni, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)\n <\/p>\n

A detail of a fresco inside the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, in Rome, shows a cherub bearing a striking resemblance to Premier Giorgia Meloni, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)<\/p>\n

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\"La<\/p>\n

\n La primera ministra italiana Giorgia Meloni durante una conferencia de prensa por su primer a\u00f1o de gobierno, el viernes 9 de enero de 2026, en Roma. (AP Foto\/Andrew Medichini)\n <\/p>\n

La primera ministra italiana Giorgia Meloni durante una conferencia de prensa por su primer a\u00f1o de gobierno, el viernes 9 de enero de 2026, en Roma. (AP Foto\/Andrew Medichini)<\/p>\n

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The diocese of Rome and the Italian Culture Ministry had both launched investigations after the image of the cherub was first published.<\/p>\n

The original painting only dated from 2000, so it wasn\u2019t a matter of damage to the church\u2019s historic patrimony. But Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the pope\u2019s vicar for Rome, insisted that a political figure had no place in church art.<\/p>\n

The ruckus gave the basilica newfound celebrity status, with curious locals and tourists lining up to photograph the Meloni cherub, at times disrupting Mass.<\/p>\n

In a statement Wednesday, the Culture Ministry set down the rules going forward: If the basilica plans to repaint the angel face, it needs prior authorization from the government which owns the church, the diocese of Rome which operates it and the culture ministry\u2019s special superintendency for Rome.<\/p>\n

Lest there be any question, the Culture Ministry said that the request for permission must be \u201caccompanied by a sketch of the image.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valentinetti had first made the cherub in 2000, when one of the basilica\u2019s front chapels was renovated to include a bust of the last king of Italy, Umberto II. Included in the decoration was a cherub holding a map of Italy, seemingly kneeling down before the king.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People take pictures at a restored fresco to the memory of late Italy\u2019s King Umberto II depicting Angels inside the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina in Rome, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)<\/p>\n

People take pictures at a restored fresco to the memory of late Italy\u2019s King Umberto II depicting Angels inside the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina in Rome, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)<\/p>\n

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The cherub was restored after water leaks damaged the basilica starting in 2023, and emerged with the face of Meloni.<\/p>\n

The investigations that were launched were to identify how the original 2000 cherub looked, with the aim of restoring the painting to that image. The faceless cherub seen Wednesday appeared a temporary fix to erase Meloni\u2019s likeness from the work.<\/p>\n

The Italian premier had made light of the whole thing. \u201cNo, I definitely don\u2019t look like an angel,\u201d Meloni wrote on social media on the weekend with a laughing\/crying emoji alongside a photo of the work.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME (AP) \u2014 Call it divine intervention, or maybe just a hasty fix-it job to put an end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[10866,10868,1665,273,7166,952,5969,10867,6101,2543,2542,2515,8224,10869,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-12749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-giorgia-meloni","8":"tag-bruno-valentinetti","9":"tag-church-and-state","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-giorgia-meloni","12":"tag-international-news","13":"tag-italy","14":"tag-italy-government","15":"tag-painting","16":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","17":"tag-religion","18":"tag-religion-and-politics","19":"tag-rome","20":"tag-send-to-apple-news","21":"tag-umberto-ii-of-italy","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116358111786983671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}