Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi (born 8 May 1952 in Ferrara) is an Italian art critic, art historian, politician, cultural commentator and television personality. In 1996 he was condemned for fraud against the Italian State and in 2012 he ceased to be Mayor of Salemi because of Mafia infiltration. He was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Several times a member of the Italian Parliament, he served also in Milan's municipal government.
His Sgarbi Quotidiani (Daily Sgarbi) TV show during the 1990s was a 15-minute daily discussion of current events. During some of those shows he furiously attacked some Italian judges during the Tangentopoli corruption scandal. This scandal led to great turmoil in Italian politics, with the fall of many traditional parties and the subsequent rise of Silvio Berlusconi, subsequently himself convicted of tax fraud. Sgarbi attacked the use of preventive detention in prison; he declared that many people had been arrested without a proper warrant and that some innocent people had been unjustly accused.