Admission to intensive care

Italian art critic, television personality, and former politician Vittorio Sgarbi was admitted to the intensive care unit at Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli in Rome on 30 September 2026. The hospital released an official medical bulletin on the evening of 1 October 2026 confirming that the 74-year-old was placed in intensive care due to acute respiratory failure. Medical staff described his condition as critical but currently stable. Sgarbi has served in the Italian Parliament across multiple terms and held mayoral offices in San Severino Marche, Salemi, Sutri, and Arpino. He was appointed undersecretary for culture in the Meloni cabinet following the 2022 elections before resigning in 2024 after an antitrust ruling regarding external private activities.

Prior health challenges

The current hospitalization follows several medical crises over the past decade. In 2016, Sgarbi was rushed to a hospital in Modena after experiencing coronary ischemia while traveling, where he underwent emergency coronary angioplasty. In March 2021, he revealed that he was undergoing medical treatment for prostate cancer. In March 2025, Sgarbi was admitted to the Gemelli hospital suffering from severe depressive syndrome and refusal to eat, which saw his body weight drop to 59 kilograms. Sgarbi later described his experience with depression during a media interview.

Just as we have a body, there are also shadows of the mind, of thoughts, ghosts that are with us and that I cannot drive away. I had never suffered from it. It feels to me like a train that has stopped at an unknown station.

Public schedule and family disputes

Following his 2025 hospitalization, Sgarbi gradually resumed public appearances throughout the spring and summer of 2026. He attended an event marking the 150th anniversary of Corriere della Sera in Ferrara in May, participated in La Milanesiana cultural festival directed by his sister Elisabetta in Bergamo in July, and visited Rovereto in August in his role as president of the Mart museum. However, his daughter Evelina Sgarbi and her legal counsel expressed deep concern over his schedule. Her lawyer, Lorenzo Iacobbi, characterized the latest hospitalization as an avoidable outcome linked to an unceasing summer schedule across Italy.

For more than a year Evelina has been fighting to protect the man and not the public figure, but she was mocked and covered in insults and invective. When the professor is better, an apology will be owed to this young woman.

Rebuttal from associates

Sgarbi's close associates and event organizers contested claims that the critic was pressured into public appearances. Santino Carta, president of the Pio Alferano and Virginia Ippolito Foundation, defended Sgarbi's week-long stay in Castellabate for the Pio Alferano Prize. Carta noted that Sgarbi was accompanied by Sabrina Colle and his assistant Guido, and spent his time resting and taking walks alongside his cultural duties. Carta stated that physicians had previously advised encouraging Sgarbi to stay active and engage with art to assist his mental well-being.

I firmly reject any portrayal suggesting that he was forced to participate or involved for interests extraneous to his will.

Carta added that Sgarbi personally insisted on presenting an award to filmmaker Matteo Garrone at the Castellabate event. Sgarbi remains under observation by medical specialists in Rome while treatment for his respiratory condition continues.