Note from the Arezzo city councilor Michele Menchetti (5 Star Movement).
“I have filed a question with the heritage councilor to obtain clarification regarding the public auction for the sale of Carbonati Palace. In the local media for a few days we have been reading that the historic Palazzo Carbonati has a new owner, Patrizio Bertelli. His lawyer stated it with these exact words: “The owner of Prada participated and won the auction for Palazzo Carbonati” but in the meantime the Municipality has not made it official – sorry if it’s not much – and it is singular to say the least given that these declarations show that there was only one offer during the opening of the envelopes which took place on May 31st.
The councilor during the debate on point 9 of the agenda of the City Council of 23 April 2024 “Change to the 2024/2026 budget forecast” stated with a certain certainty: “We then reinserted Palazzo Carbonati into the disposal plan for a expected figure of 1.592 million euroswhich is used for the construction of the roundabout in via Chiarini and partially, for 10 percent, to reduce debt, as required by the legislation on real estate disposal” whereupon the undersigned, bearing in mind that this building was unsold, despite various auction notices, for about 15 years, he asked him how in this case he could even go so far as to pledge the sum of his sale for the realization of an important work like the via Chiarini roundabout. He replied: “I assume that Palazzo Carbonati will be sold during 2024”.
Since there are two other documents on Carbonates published in the praetorian register that are worthy of attention – one relating to the sanitization and ordinary maintenance of bird guano and the other to the extension of the scaffolding rental service until June 2024 – I asked various things to the councilor in the question. What are the reasons why the Municipality is currently waiting several days for the officialization, aware of the only offer presented – if so – so much so as to push the new owner’s lawyer to come out to the press before the Municipality itself? Why did the administration decide not to respond to the statements of Patrizio Bertelli’s lawyer, denying or confirming what he said?
Does the Municipality of Arezzo consider it “normal” that Bertelli’s lawyer states in a press release that his client was awarded Palazzo Carbonati for 1.6 million euros on the starting price of 1.592 million? Who provided this information to the lawyer Gatteschi? It can be hypothesized that there was one news leak from within the Municipality? In fact, it is not enough that Bertelli’s lawyer, or someone on his behalf, was possibly present at the opening of the envelopes on May 31st and, in the hypothesis that his only offer was presented, all this is not enough to declare part of the lawyer that his client won the auction, as the municipal administration and on its behalf the Heritage Service which announced the auction, has the duty to verify the correctness of the request with the legal controls a posteriori that this type of procedure requires.
I therefore ask the municipal administration: if checks reveal impediments to the award, how would the Municipality of Arezzo behave?
It seems curious that the councilor – last April 23, 2024 in the City Council – showed off such confidence in being able to sell Palazzo Carbonati after 15 years of empty auctions, and moreover in selling it just over a month after that Council when it had not yet been organized and none banned public auction. And it arouses curiosity in my eyes that a property like the Carbonati was cleaned of pigeon guano at the beginning of 2024 when other municipal properties are in much worse conditions, yet are completely abandoned to their own devices.
I therefore ask the administration: how many other times in the previous 15 years have interventions been carried out regarding the disinfection and the ordinary maintenance of bird guano at Palazzo Carbonati? I also ask how the decision was reached to extend the rental service of the external scaffolding of Palazzo Carbonati for just six months, until June 2024, when the same rental was usually extended from year to year? How many other times in the previous 15 years was the scaffolding rental service extended and for how long?
Wouldn’t it have been better for the Municipality of Arezzo to use the public money spent in recent years for the rental of scaffolding to permanently repair the roof of Palazzo Carbonati? In fact, by doing so, he only benefited for many years rental company of the scaffolding and the problem of the roof of this property was not resolved. It would be like saying that each of us in our own home, instead of repairing the damaged roof, made the property safe by installing external scaffolding and then left everything as it is, without repairing the roof itself. It seems really illogical to me and above all uneconomical for the citizens of Arezzo.”
The clarifications of the lawyer Giovanni Gatteschi
We receive and publish the note from the lawyer Giovanni Gatteschi in response to the intervention of the M5S municipal councilor, Michele Menchetti.
“In this regard, the article on “Palazzo Carbonati”, which appeared this morning in your digital newspaper, solely to clarify that the undersigned has never issued any statement, much less a “press note”, as stated by Michele Menchetti. The undersigned , when questioned by some journalists in the days following the auction, limited himself to replying – as he could not help but say since it corresponded to the truth – that “Peschiera Immobiliare” had participated in the auction (which was also public) and that, in the absence of other competitors , had been awarded the sale of Palazzo Carbonati, but that the latter still had to be approved by the Municipality and that this approval had to be communicated within the following 20 days. Nothing more or different”.
