Prime minister Giorgia Meloni will auction hundreds of gifts received over the past three years. The items, given mainly by foreign leaders, are worth an estimated €800,000. Proceeds from the sale will go to charity.
A total of 273 institutional gifts will be auctioned. Rome-based Bertolami Fine Art won the tender to host the sale. The auction house will receive 5% of the proceeds, capped at €40,000.
The gifts are currently stored in government buildings. Meloni has also said she is considering auctioning gifts received by previous prime ministers. Under Italian law, prime ministers cannot keep gifts worth more than €300.
The auction date has not yet been announced. Nor has the full list of items been made public.
Details emerged after a parliamentary question from Italia Viva MP Francesco Bonifazi.
What gifts are included?
Items listed include a scarf given by Albanian prime minister Edi Rama during an energy meeting in Abu Dhabi in January. Rama famously presented the scarf while kneeling.
Another item is a traditional Kerala dress from Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, given during the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022.
Other gifts include a jewellery box from Slovak president Peter Pellegrini and a porcelain tea set from Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán also gave six bottles of white wine.
Former US president Joe Biden presented Meloni with a ceramic bowl. Around 15 carpets from Libya and other Arab countries are also included.
Some gifts are symbolic rather than luxurious. These include a piece of high-conductivity cable from CERN director Fabiola Giannotti and a tablet from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
More unusual items are also on the list. Argentine president Javier Milei gave Meloni a statuette of himself holding a chainsaw. Saudi Italian Business Council director Kamel Al Munajjed presented her with blue python skin shoes with gold heels.
