Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister and media tycoon, is noted for his appreciation of the female form. Today however the Italian press accused him of Victorian prudery after a nude breast in a reproduction of a painting by Giampbattista Tiepolo at Palazzo Chigi, the Prime Minister’s residence, was covered up.

Mr Berlusconi chose the painting, entitled “Truth Revealed by Time”, as the backdrop for his press conferences at Palazzo Chigi after he took office for the third time in May. However the bosom of a generously proportioned female figure in the painting has mysteriously been draped in what appears to be a strategically placed gauze tunic.

La Stampa said the “gauze” had been applied digitally, since the original painting could not be altered. “Perhaps the Prime Minister’s staff feared that the attention of journalists was being drawn to the breast over his left shoulder rather than to what he was saying,” the paper suggested.

Staff at Palazzo Chigi said that the breast could “offend the sensibilities of some people”, possibly a reference to female ministers in Mr Berlusconi’s Cabinet. On the other hand the female ministers include Mara Carfagna, the Minister for Equal Opportunities, who in the past was a television showgirl and topless model.

Last year Mr Berlusconi had to apologise publicly to his wife Veronica after paying extravagant compliments to Ms Carfagna’s beauty, telling her that if were not already married he would marry her “like a shot”.

Italian papers compared the Tiepolo cover up to the Vatican’s censorship of Michelangalo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes in the sixteenth century, when his “indecorous nudes” were similarly draped in gauze.

Paolo Bonaiuti, Mr Berlusconi’s spokesman, said that female staff at Palazzo Chigi had asked for the “re-touching”.

Vittorio Sgarbi, the art critic and former deputy Culture Minister, said that the move was “madness". He added: "I can only hope Berlusconi did not know about it.”

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