Italy’s culture minister and the diocese of Rome have launched investigations after claims were made that an angel in a landmark church in Rome was restored in the likeness of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

The resemblance was first flagged by the newspaper La Repubblica, which noted that one of the two angels flanking a marble bust of Italy’s last king in the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina now had “a familiar, astonishingly contemporary face”.

It added: “Before the restoration, there was a generic cherub. Today, it is the face of the most powerful woman in the country.”

The front-page story set off a flurry of reactions. The culture ministry said technicians had been dispatched to carry out an inspection of the winged figure. They had been told to “establish the nature of the work carried out”, it said in a statement, and would “decide what action to take”.