Vatican appears to have ordered removal of restored work, which artist confessed he had made to resemble PM
The face of a winged angel bearing a striking resemblance to the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has been erased from a fresco in a historic Rome church, putting an end to a debacle that embarrassed the Vatican.
The image on the wall painting in a chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina in central Rome was removed overnight, leaving the cherub headless.
The dead ringer for Meloni appeared after restoration by an amateur artist, Bruno Valentinetti, with the likeness first reported by La Repubblica on Saturday.
Valentinetti told the newspaper on Wednesday he had been asked to remove it by the Vatican. A spokesperson for the Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
