Vittorio Sgarbi

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. 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). 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 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.