The president of an Italian museum has resigned following a ferocious backlash from Giorgia Meloni’s hard right Brothers of Italy over a picture he posted on Instagram. Luca Dell’Atti, president of the Museum of Pre-classical Civilisations of Southern Murgia in Ostuni, posted an upside-down photo of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on the social media platform, recalling for many the sight of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini strung up by his feet following his execution.Dell’Atti was in post for a month-and-a-half after being appointed to the museum—where displays of archaeological artefacts include a human skeleton believed to date back 28,000 years—shortly after Christmas last year.The now-former president announced his resignation in a note on Wednesday, stating: “With reference to the well-known events of the past few days that have seen me personally subjected to an intolerable media pillory, to protect my personal serenity, and the honourability of my conduct and my name […], I hereby resign as president of the museum”.The row erupted on Monday after Dell’Atti posted an inverted image of Meloni with tears streaming down her face on his Instagram page. The original image, taken as Meloni participated in a remembrance ceremony commemorating the victims of the foibe massacres (when Yugoslav partisans threw Italian fascists alive into sinkholes) had initially appeared on Brothers of Italy’s Twitter/X page. In recent years, numerous left-wing activists, politicians and academics have inverted images of representatives of Brothers of Italy, the political party led by Meloni that has roots in the Italian Social Movement, a post-fascist political party that was founded in 1946 and contained numerous former followers of Mussolini.The inverted images—of face shots, electoral posters and copies of Meloni’s autobiography—have been interpreted as a reference to Mussolini’s corpse hung in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto after Italian partisans executed him in 1945.Dell’Atti’s version drew swift condemnation, with Luigi Caroli, a regional councillor in Puglia for Brothers of Italy, calling it “a shameful gesture of unprecedented gravity” and calling on Dell’Atti to be removed. Angelo Pomes, the left-wing mayor of Ostuni, declared shortly after that his administration had “distanced itself in a clear-cut way” from Dell’Atti.The researcher swiftly apologised, explaining that he had made an “impulsive” decision to post the image because he had “disagreed with positions taken by [Meloni] on the Day of Remembrance”.The controversy continued to build, however, with Gennaro Sangiuliano, the culture minister, subsequently releasing a statement, in which he stated: “Whoever presides over a museum, whether it be state-run, private, run by a parish or municipality-run, as in the present case, has a duty to the community not to express offensive opinions”. The minister added that although the institution is a civic museum and as such “does not belong to the Ministry of Culture” it does not “exempt me” from sharing opinions.Further regional councillors, members of parliament and senators from Brothers of Italy also called on Dell’Atti to resign.After Dell’Atti stepped down on Wednesday, Pomes thanked him. “I hope that this will be enough to close this unpleasant affair, re-establishing a more serene political climate for our institutions, but also for professor Dell’Atti himself.”
