Giorgia Meloni is auctioning gifts received from leaders such as Joe Biden, Viktor Orbán, Narendra Modi or Volodymyr Zelenski. What are the most unusual objects
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is auctioning 270 gifts received from international leaders, including some absolutely unusual ones.
Giorgia Meloni received a statuette with him from Javier Milei. PHOTO: Facebook/Ian Bremmer
Giorgia Meloni, Italy's prime minister, will auction 270 gifts received during her tenure from world leaders in a charity initiative estimated to be worth around €800,000. The event will be organized by the Bertolami Fine Art auction house in Rome.
Among the gifts that will be sold are surprising and unusual items: python shoes with gold heels, statuettes of political figures or items given by leaders such as US President Joe Biden, Argentine Prime Minister Javier Milei or Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The aim of the auction is for the funds raised to be donated to charity and the event is expected to take place before Christmas, although the exact date has not been set.
According to the publication Il Foglio, the gifts are kept in a specially designed room on the third floor of the Chigi Palace, the seat of the Italian government. Sources within the institution confirmed to The Guardian that all items will be appraised and sold to the highest bidder. Moreover, Prime Minister Meloni plans to include in the auction gifts left unused by his predecessors, which have been stored in the same room for years.
Although the full list of gifts has not been made public, in April politician Francesco Bonifazi, from the centrist Italia Viva party, presented a detailed 11-page document to parliament with all the gifts declared at the Chigi Palace. Bonifazi drew attention to the observance of legal limits: according to Italian law, a prime minister cannot keep gifts worth more than 300 euros.
Among the gifts with spectacular stories was a scarf given by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Meloni's birthday, when Edi Rama knelt before the Italian prime minister to hand over the gift during an energy security meeting in Abu Dhabi.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Giorgia Meloni with a traditional Kerala dress at the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022, just a month after she took over as the head of the Italian government.
The collection also includes jewelry given by the President of Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini, a porcelain tea set and six bottles of wine from the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, a ceramic bowl given by former US President Joe Biden, a tablet from the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenski, watercolor paintings from the Republic of Moldova, make-up products, a skateboard and 15 carpets received during official visits to Libya and other Arab states.
Among the most unusual gifts are the statuette offered by Javier Milei and the python leather shoes with golden heels, given by Kamel Al-Munajjed, director of the Italian-Saudi Business Council.
