A 16th-century altarpiece by Vittore Carpaccio has been returned to the Slovenian town of Piran, where it was originally commissioned, drawing sharp criticism from Italian politicians who insist the work remains part of Italy’s cultural patrimony.
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Six Saints (1518) was painted for Piran’s Church of St. Francis of Assisi, in Istria—an Adriatic region that was once under Italian control but is now divided among Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy. The painting was removed in 1940, when Istria lay entirely within Italy’s borders, and placed for safekeeping in Padua during World War II. It has hung in the Basilica of Sant’Antonio there for decades.
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On September 4, following pressure from Franciscan friars in Padua, the work was quietly transferred back to Piran, days before President Sergio Mattarella began a state visit to Slovenia. The Slovenian culture minister, Asta Vrečko, hailed the return as “the fruit of long-standing efforts” and said the painting would soon be viewable “in its authentic setting.”
In Italy, however, the handover has been denounced as a capitulation. Roberto Menia, a senator for Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party and descendant of Istrian exiles, said the work “remains part of Italian heritage,” stressing Carpaccio’s Venetian roots. Anna Maria Cisint, an MEP for the League, warned in a letter to Mattarella that exiles felt “pain and a sense of loss.” Another Brothers of Italy deputy, Alessandro Urzì, called the transfer a “restitution” and “fundamentally incorrect.”
The debate touches a historical nerve. Around 350,000 Italians fled Istria and Dalmatia after World War II amid intimidation and reprisals under Tito’s Yugoslavia.
The painting will be reinstalled in Piran’s St. Francis on December 27, after restoration work on the church’s altar is complete.