Italian Prime Minister Pulls an "Ashcroft"

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft was ridiculed when he ordered a bare-breasted statue covered up so it could not be seen in the background at his press conferences, and now Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has ordered a similar cover up of an Tiepolo masterpiece.

Mr Berlusconi, whose cabinet includes a former topless model, decided that journalists and television cameras would be distracted by the naked form in the 254-year-old picture, Time Unveiling Truth, when he appears with visitors such as the Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki.

He instructed aides to replace the original, which was commissioned for a palazzo in Vicenza, with a copy that has had a white “veil” added to cover up the offending breast.

But the move has dismayed art lovers. Giancarlo Galan, the governor of the Veneto region, said: “The prime minister’s office have managed to offend one of the great artists of liberty.”

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