The southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria opened a permanent public display last month of works confiscated from the collection of the mafia boss Gioacchino Campolo.
The “video poker king”, who made a fortune by tampering with slot machines, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for extortion and association with the mafia, among other crimes, in 2011. The state seized assets worth €330m, including paintings by Salvador Dalí, Lucio Fontana and Giorgio de Chirico.
After an exhibition at the city’s National Archaeological Museum in 2013, local officials persuaded state authorities to release 125 paintings from storage permanently. The display at Reggio’s Palazzo della Cultura will be a “symbol of a heritage restored to the community”, says the councillor Eduardo Lamberti-Castronuovo.
