Vittorio Sgarbi

The son of pharmacists Giuseppe Sgarbi (1921–2018) and Rina Cavallini (1926–2015), he has a younger sister, Elisabetta Sgarbi (born 1956), an Italian film producer and writer.

Sgarbi grew up in Ro Ferrarese and attended the Classical Lyceum named after Ludovico Ariosto.

Sgarbi then graduated in Philosophy cum laude at the University of Bologna, where he also specialized in History of Art.

Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi (born 8 May 1952) is an Italian art critic, art historian, writer, politician, cultural commentator, and television personality.

He is president of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto.

Sgarbi was born in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna, in 1952.

In an attempt to re-populate the city since the 1968 Belice earthquake that hit Salemi's ancient centre, parts of which date back more than 1,000 years to the Islamic occupation, under the suggestion of photographer and friend Oliviero Toscani, Sgarbi proposed to give historic houses for €1 each.

While mayor of Salemi, Sgarbi was removed from his role and the administration of the city was commissioned after he failed to acknowledge Sicilian Mafia interferences in his cabinet.

According to the then interior minister Anna Maria Cancellieri, Sgarbi had responsibilities for the infiltration of mafia in the management of the city, for example through the creation of fake protocols and making the administrative process slower.

Sgarbi later recalled it was "a mistake", saying: "The mafia was based on silence; from Buscetta onwards, in Sicily it is archaeology: it is no coincidence that I opened the mafia museum. In your opinion, what is the mafia doing in Salemi? The mafia goes where the money is. In Milan. In Moscow."

After his graduation, Sgarbi taught History of Photography (1974–1978) and History of Artistic Techniques (1984–1988) before entering politics in 1992.

An eclectic, controversial, and often discussed character, Sgarbi has built his career around art but also covered heterogeneous roles and positions in different sectors, publishing numerous works.

Sgarbi made his debut on national television as an art expert on the Maurizio Costanzo Show on Canale 5.

Sgarbi also became famous for repeatedly shouting capra ("goat"), which was first uttered during the 23 March 1989 episode of the Maurizio Costanzo Show, as a way to avoid libels due to his insulting language.

Years later, capra made it into the title of a book by Sgarbi and published by Baldini+Castoldi.

He is also well-known for his many party switches, starting in the Italian Socialist Party in 1990, before switching to the Italian Liberal Party in 1992 and joining Silvio Berlusconi and his centre-right coalition party Forza Italia in 1994, and to other minor liberal and centre-right parties, including founding its own parties in 1999, 2012, and 2017 (The Liberals Sgarbi, the Party of the Revolution, and Renaissance).

In the 1990s, he had his own show, Sgarbi quotidiani, which was a pun on his name that can be read as "Daily Sgarbi" or "Daily Offences".

The show was a 15-minute recapitulation of current events.

On a few episodes, Sgarbi furiously attacked the Italian judges working on the Tangentopoli corruption scandal, and criticized the use of preventive detention in prison; in particular, he declared that many people had been arrested without a proper warrant and that some innocent people had been unjustly accused, and denounced what he saw as the excessive power of investigative magistrates, the severe Article 41-bis prison regime, and the damage done to the regional economy by organized crime investigations.

He visited Giuseppe Piromalli, a boss of the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria, in prison.

During a 1991 appearance in a television show presented by Giuliano Ferrara, Sgarbi and Roberto D'Agostino's exchanges of insults culminated in D'Agostino slapping Sgarbi.

Years later, the two made peace.

In 1992, the year after Tangentopoli, Sgarbi was elected mayor of San Severino Marche with the Italian Socialist Party and member of the Chamber of Deputies in the Cagliari constituency with the Italian Liberal Party.

In a series of interviews given on 15–19 July 1994 to Avvenire and il Giornale, Sgarbi described the Mani pulite judges, who were working on the Tangentopoli scandal, as murderers and part of a criminal association.

Due to the use of those words, Sgarbi was convicted of libel, a sentence that was confirmed by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation; he was sentenced to pay €60,000.

Sgarbi had said: "DI Pietro, Colombo, Davigo, and the others are murderers who made people die. They must be tried and arrested. They are a criminal association with the freedom to kill. It is right that they leave, no one will regret them. They go to church to pray for all those people they caused to die: Moroni, Gardini, Cicogna, Cagliari. They have all these crosses on their conscience. I thank God that, with this decree [Biondi Decree], they will themselves avoid arrest for all the murders they have committed."

In 1994, Sgarbi joined Forza Italia, the new-founded party of Silvio Berlusconi.

As part of the Pole of Good Government, he campaigned actively in Southern Italy for judicial reforms after Tangentopoli, such as the failed Biondi Decree.

As a member of Forza Italia, he carried out much parliamentary activity, including being president of the 7th Culture, Science, and Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 1996, elected a member of the European Parliament in 1999, and the undersecretary for cultural heritage and activities from 2001 to 2002.

About the state of art in 2002, Sgarbi said: "I don't think cinema and theatre are essential to humanity... No one goes to see Italian films because they stink."

That same year, supported by the 2002-refounded Christian Democracy and the Union of the Centre parties, Sgarbi became mayor of the Sicilian city of Salemi, a position from which he resigned in February 2012.

In 2006, Sgarbi obtained the culture department of the municipality of Milan, a position he held until 2008.

In 2008, Sgarbi served as Cabinet Member for Culture, Arts, and Sports in Milan's municipal government for six months when mayor Letizia Moratti terminated his mandate as she saw him "unfit for the job".

During his career, Sgarbi was superintendent for the Venetian Museum Complex from 2010 to 2011 and curator of numerous artistic events, including the 2011 Venice Biennale, where he was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion.

Appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, Sgarbi is also a columnist for il Giornale and works as an art critic for Panorama and IO Donna.

A popular ecletic and mediatic phenomenon, Sgarbi is well known for his glib, verbal aggressiveness, and insults, which often led to libels.

A multi-time member of the Italian Parliament, Sgarbi is best known for his mayoralty terms in several cities (San Severino Marche, Salemi, Sutri, and Arpino) across different Italian regions (Marche, Sicily, and Lazio).

In 2013, he left the presidency of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino, a position he had held since 2003.

In 2018, he returned to the 2013-refounded Forza Italia.

After a failed Senate bid in 2022, he was appointed undersecretary for culture in the Meloni Cabinet.