Assets worth 141 million euros, including cash, jewellery, furniture, a private helicopter and works of art by masters such as Modigliani and Picasso, were seized by the Guardia di Finanza in Brescia last week. The owner is accused of tax fraud and money laundering.
As reported by The Art Newspaper, the suspect is said to be the 63-year-old Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillo, who has been under investigation since the beginning of the year. In the period from 2013 to 2019, Cirillo is thought to have smuggled over 50 million euros past the Italian tax authorities by providing false information.
Cirillo has been active in Russia since the 1990s, and has since worked for several extremely wealthy Russian clients. The mysterious 18,000 square meter luxury estate on the Black Sea, said to belong to Vladimir Putin, is rumoured to have come from Cirillo's drawing board. In 2014, the architect was awarded Russian honorary citizenship. Cirillo, who is currently living in Russia, has made it known through his lawyer that he lived and worked in Russia during the period in question, and was therefore not subject to tax in Italy.
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The Italian tax authority sees things differently and believes that Cirillo "would have retained the centre of his family, emotional and economic-hereditary interests in Italy". The transfer of ownership of his villa near Brescia to his wife is suspected to be the creation of a fake residence abroad.
The confiscation of Cirillo's assets is a preventive measure ordered by the investigating judge, which will only come into effect in the event of a guilty verdict, as a spokesman for the Guardia di Finanza told The Art Newspaper. If that happens, the works of art will be handed over to Italian museums.
