THE family of an imprisoned Mafia Godfather is at war with the Sicilian authorities — not over murder, extortion or drugs smuggling, but T-shirts.

The town council of Corleone, in the hills near Palermo, recently had T-shirts made bearing the slogan “I Love Corleone” as part of a campaign to dissociate the town from Cosa Nostra.

Corleone has long provided the Sicilian Mafia with its “boss of bosses”, including Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested in April just outside Corleone after 40 years on the run, and Toto Riina, his predecessor, arrested in 1993.

But the civic leaders resent the town’s reputation as a Mafia stronghold, made known globally through Mario Puzo’s novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic film The Godfather, in which a US-based Mafia chief is Don Vito Corleone.

The campaign to give Corleone a new image follows a crackdown on the Mafia that began in 1993 with the imprisonment for life of Riina after the murder of two anti-Mafia judges, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. It received a fresh impetus with the dramatic arrest of Provenzano.

The Corleone council has been holding an anti-Mafia festival of concerts, exhibitions and plays, with sales of the T-shirts funding projects to turn confiscated Mafia properties into schools and farming co-operatives. However, relatives of Riina have put a damper on the celebrations by claiming that they have copyright on the “I Love Corleone” slogan.

The Corleone council is being sued for damages by Mattea Ciavarello, whose brother, Tony, is married to the imprisoned Godfather’s daughter, Maria Concetta Riina. The family own a clothing company called Mania Max Embroidery, which they claim began manufacturing “I Love Corleone” T-shirts five years ago.

Nicolo Nicolosi, the Mayor of Corleone, said that he would argue in court that “only those who truly love our town and devote themselves to its development can use the slogan and defend the good name of Corleone in the world — which is what we are undoubtedly doing. In any case only the council can use the name of Corleone for commercial purposes”.

But Gaetano La Venuta, a lawyer acting for the Riina family, said it was “inconceivable that the council did not know that the ‘I Love Corleone’ slogan was the property of Mania Max”.

Last month, in a separate T-shirt war, Salvatore Cuffaro, the governor of Sicily, authorised the use of public funds to manufacture T-shirts bearing the slogan “The Mafia is Disgusting” (La Mafia Fa Schifo) to counteract the popularity in Palermo boutiques of commercially produced T-shirts reading “Mafia — Made in Italy”.

Signor Cuffaro said that he opposed any attempt to glamorise organised crime, and proceeds from the sale of “The Mafia is Disgusting” T-shirts would go to charity. Ironically, Signor Cuffaro is himself facing charges of aiding and abetting the Mafia, which he denies. He was re-elected in June despite a centre-Left challenge from Rita Borsellino, sister of the murdered judge, Paolo Borsellino.

In the Godfather films, Don Vito Corleone is played by Marlon Brando and — as a young man emigrating to America from Sicily — by Robert De Niro. Some Corleone citizens have become so fed up with visitors looking for traces of the Corleone family that they have suggested changing its name.