Maverick Italian culture minister resigns over plan to put national treasures in private hands

A leading figure in the Italian government has given up his job at the Culture Ministry, citing outrage at plans to privatise much of Italy's art and cultural heritage for profit.

Vittorio Sgarbi, under-secretary in the Ministry of Culture, said he was "unable to share the methods or destiny of this ministry".

The government of Silvio Berlusconi plans to create two companies to manage the state's many assets and properties. In theory, works of art and historical monuments, including the Colosseum in Rome, could be sold.

"I cannot accept this – you might be able to sell buildings, but the government cannot sell the contents of the Uffizi in Florence," Mr Sgarbi said.

The government's heritage policy has alarmed many in the arts world. In November last year, the directors of 50 museums and galleries, including the National Gallery, the Tate, the British Museum, the Louvre, New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Prado, wrote to the Italian government calling on it to put public interest before profit after the plans were unveiled.

Last month there was further outrage as the Bill landed in parliament. In protest environmental organisations, including Greenpeace and WWF, mocked up an auction of the Trevi Fountain.

The government has denied it wants to sell Italy's monuments, but the Bill, which puts the management of state assets into the hands of private companies, has no provision to protect national treasures.

Mr Sgarbi, a voluble art critic, newspaper columnist and television celebrity turned politician, has often eclipsed his boss, Giuliano Urbani, the Minister for Culture and the Environment. His verbal missiles have provoked a series of national and international incidents since the government took power a year ago.

His resignation will be seen as the culmination of long-standing differences between Mr Sgarbi and Mr Urbani. Yet his cited reasons for leaving come as an about-turn. Mr Sgarbi has in the past rigorously defended Mr Urbani's plans to involve the private sector in Italy's heritage.

Mr Urbani may be heaving a sigh of relief at Mr Sgarbi's departure, but the Italian media will rue the disappearance of one of the most colourful figures of the Berlusconi administration.

On taking up office, he at once lambasted the work of his predecessors, vowing to halt work on a new building commissioned from the American architect Richard Meier to house the Ara Pacis, construction of which was well under way.

Last autumn international relations were strained when he threatened to block the loan of masterpieces by the 15th-century painter Masaccio to the National Gallery in protest at Britain's stinginess with its own art works. He claimed the loan would amount to "sexual tourism" involving the abuse of art.

Recently he whipped up a storm with his meddling in the organisation of the Venice Biennale contemporary art and film festival. Mr Sgarbi nurses a well-aired contempt for contemporary art, which he has called "shitty" and a "dictatorship". The conflict over who was to take charge highlighted the differences between Mr Sgarbi and Mr Urbani, and between the government and the art world.

There was more trouble in Australia in March. When one of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, The Australian, published a harsh review of an exhibition of Italian masterpieces in Sydney, Mr Sgarbi threatened to sue Mr Murdoch for millions in damages.

Mr Sgarbi stirred things up further when he represented Mr Berlusconi at the Paris book fair, shouting "Nazis, Fascists, Communists" at a group of demonstrators in the kind of outburst for which he has become famous. The Italian delegation then withdrew from the festival.

Once, awarded a booby prize "Golden Tapir" on television for his role as a consultant for a company accused of selling forged art works on television, he smashed the award over the host's head.

Mr Sgarbi infuriated Ethiopia in a long-running dispute over the Obelisk of Axum, looted in Ethiopia in 1937 under Mussolini. Its return was agreed five years ago, but Mr Sgarbi announced that it had become a "naturalised citizen" and would stay. After it was badly chipped by a bolt of lightning a fortnight ago, he relented, saying: "After all, it has already been damaged, so we might as well give it back."