The face of the Italian prime minister has been wiped from a fresco in a Roman church a few days after visitors recognised Giorgia Meloni in one of the cherubs

Urgent restoration was carried out on the orders of the church authorities.

On Wednesday morning, visitors to the Roman basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina were greeted by an empty space where the "Meloni angel" had so lately basked in bliss, a decisive end to a saga that has held Rome in suspense since Saturday.

The "restoration of the restoration" was carried out overnight by the original restorer, Bruno Valentinetti, to put an end to the scandal that had turned the historic basilica into a viral tourist attraction.

The row began when the newspaper La Repubblica published "before" and "after" photographs of a cherub in a side chapel of the fifth-century church in the centre of Rome. The chapel, which contains the monument to Umberto II, the last King of Italy, had recently been restored by an 80-year-old volunteer decorator who is also the church's sacristan.

The original version of the fresco, painted in 2000, showed an ordinary cherub, but the recently restored version featured an angel whose features were unmistakably those of Giorgia Meloni.

The discovery provoked a nationwide debate, and opposition parties condemned the work as "unacceptable propaganda" and a breach of the cultural heritage code.

Meloni herself joked about the situation, posting a photograph of the angel with the caption: "No, I definitely do not look like an angel."

Both the Diocese of Rome and Italy's Ministry of Culture opened investigations into whether the "restoration" constituted an unauthorised alteration of a protected object, as crowds flocked to see the fresco.

As of today, however, the politician's face has been erased and reduced to a grey smudge, while the rest of the fresco, including the angel's body, remains untouched.

Valentinetti admitted to journalists that it was he who had concealed the face, which he himself had earlier "stylised" after Meloni. The decision to "correct" the angel was dictated by a combination of theological and practical considerations: Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Pope's Vicar General for Rome, firmly declared that politicians have no place in sacred art, regardless of their popularity. And the parish priest noted that the church had been overrun by crowds of curious tourists and TikTokers who came to see the "Meloni Chapel" rather than to pray or attend Mass, which hindered the functioning of the church.

Next time, any restoration of the basilica's paintings will require prior permission from the Ministry of the Interior, which owns the church, the Diocese of Rome, which administers it, and the special cultural office of Rome. With, naturally, a sketch of the angel's face submitted in advance.