Why Berlusconi left his family 25,000 worthless paintings

With a 3-page handwritten will, Silvio Berlusconi handed over to his heirs a huge fortune with a value ranging between 4 and 5 billion euros. The former Italian prime minister and media mogul died in June 2023.

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Beyond stock assets, Berlusconi's empire also includes a vast portfolio of properties, yachts, funds, current accounts, and works of art.

Not all of Berlusconi's works of art, however, were found on the walls of his villas. Italian media have reported that an incredible number of paintings have been stored in a hangar near Berlusconi's historic residence in Arcore.

According to reports by RAI News, the media tycoon left behind some 25,000 pieces of art, including paintings and statues.

As La Repubblica writes, it is the "most inconvenient" inheritance that the former Prime Minister has left to his heirs. It also describes the art collection as "cumbersome." But that's not only because of its size.

According to what art critic Vittorio Sgarbi (in the photo) declared, many of the paintings preserved in the hangar are works of little value.

These are paintings that mostly depict urban landscapes, women, and Madonnas. (Not the singer, but Christ's mom, in case anyone wonders.) As the website Insideart reports, Berlusconi purchased these works not only from Neapolitan art dealers but also from local teleshopping channels.

In Art Tribune, the art critic Sgarbi defines these paintings as "croste" (Italian for 'trashy' or 'kitsch'). Yet, they may have cost the former prime minister "a total of around 20 million euros." In short, not a very wise investment.

"In reality, it would have been better to have 2,400 good ones than 24,000 so-so's," the critic said. According to Insideart, he had already tried to convince Berlusconi in the past to limit his investments to a smaller number of works that had more value.

Berlusconi's trusted art dealer, Cesare Lampronti, is quoted on Insideart as defining the former prime minister as a compulsive buyer. In other words, he was aware of the fact that the works he was buying had no value, but he couldn't help himself.

"There will be six or seven interesting ones" among the 25,000, art critic Sgarbi estimates. And what about the rest? He says: "destruction would not be a crime."

For the heirs, this "voluminous" inheritance also has another added cost; that of renting and managing the warehouse where it is kept. According to the Italian paper La Repubblica, it would cost about 800,000 euros per year.

In the photo: Berlusconi's son and his partner

Maintaining an art collection of little value at a very high cost surely won't appeal to Berlusconi's children. They likely want to get rid of it. However, according to the paper Corriere della Sera, the collection "cannot be touched, at least for now."

As reported by Corriere, in fact, it would seem that the family has no intention of getting rid of the cumbersome result of Berlusconi's art investments. Apparently, "beyond the economic value, it certainly has an emotional one."

In the photo: Marina, Pier Silvio, and Paolo Berlusconi, the media mogul's children

What the future of the collection will be, in short, has not yet been established. Some even think it could be a tourist attraction.

As Sgarbi declared to Art Tribune: "If we could see the works collected in these enormous warehouses in a museum, it would be fun for people who understand little about art."

The only certain thing is that, whatever they decide to do, the Berlusconis have to hurry up. As Repubblica reports, the canvases would already be under attack by woodworms. Which would make perfect sense, because then, nature could decide for everyone.

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