ROME — In the heart of the Eternal City, a heavenly messenger has met a very earthly end.
Early Wednesday morning, visitors to the fifth-century Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina were met with a startling sight: the winged angel that had spent the last four days as Italy’s most famous resident was gone. More accurately, its head was gone. Overnight, the face of a cherub that bore an “astonishing” resemblance to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was painted over, leaving behind a blank, grey blur where a political doppelgänger once stood.
The unceremonious “erasure” concludes a week-long saga that transformed a quiet side chapel into a viral tourist circus, drawing crowds of TikTokers and gawkers who disrupted Mass to snap photos of the “Angel Meloni.”
The ‘Restoration of the Restoration’
The controversy began last Saturday when the newspaper La Repubblica published before-and-after photos of a fresco flanking the monument of Italy’s last king, Umberto II. Following a restoration to fix water damage, what was once a “generic cherub” had suddenly acquired the distinctive hairstyle, jawline, and steady gaze of the 49-year-old Prime Minister.
The artist behind the work, 80-year-old volunteer Bruno Valentinetti, spent days denying the likeness before finally conceding the truth to reporters. While he initially claimed he was simply following the original lines he himself had painted in the year 2000, he eventually admitted he had “styled” the angel after Meloni.
By Wednesday, Valentinetti was back at the church—this time to destroy his own handiwork. He reportedly acted on direct orders from the Vatican and the parish priest, Monsignor Daniele Micheletti, who had become fed up with the “procession of people” treating the basilica like a political rally.
Clerical Outrage and Political Wit
The “Meloni Angel” didn’t just attract tourists; it drew the ire of the Holy See. Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Pope’s vicar for Rome, expressed “bitterness” over the incident, declaring that sacred art must not be “misused or exploited” for contemporary politics.
Opposition parties were even more blunt, with the Five Star Movement condemning the fresco as “unacceptable propaganda” and a violation of the cultural heritage code. They argued that even if the Prime Minister is popular, her face has no place in a chapel dedicated to the “Holy Souls in Purgatory.”
For her part, the Prime Minister took the scandal in stride. Meloni posted a photo of the angel to her Instagram account with a laughing emoji and a self-deprecating caption: “No, I definitely don’t look like an angel.”
A Headless Future
Because the original painting only dates back to 2000, it lacks the strict heritage protections afforded to Rome’s Renaissance masterpieces. However, the Italian Ministry of Culture has still launched an inquiry into whether the unauthorized “update” constitutes a breach of protocol for religious sites.
For now, the angel remains “decapitated.” Any attempt to repaint a face on the figure will now require a bureaucratic mountain of paperwork, including a formal sketch that must be approved by the Interior Ministry, the Diocese of Rome, and the Special Superintendency of Rome.
As the grey paint dries in San Lorenzo in Lucina, the basilica has returned to its usual quiet. The “Angel of Lucina” may have been a viral sensation, but in a city that has seen empires rise and fall, a prime minister’s face lasted only 96 hours before being consigned to the shadows of history.