Bank of Italy is not the same with the State? I mean this banks is not owned by the Government?
Interestingly, unlike most countries where sovereign gold is owned by the State but managed by the country’s central bank, the Italian gold is officially owned by Italy’s central bank, Banca d’Italia (Bank of Italy), and not owned by the Italian State.
As you can see Italy has a little different way how gold is managed, their central bank is key player when it comes to gold.
It is very interesting how this story is become actual in the political and public life of Italy. The government allegedly had the intention to sell part of gold reserves in order to prevent increase in value added tax, but problem is in who is control gold, and where this gold really is.
The Banca d’Italia furthermore claims that 1199.4 tonnes of the gold (or roughly half), is stored in the Bank’s building in Rome, with most of the other half stored in the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY), and a small balance kept the Bank of England in London, and in an account of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in the vaults of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Berne, Switzerland. But without any documentary evidence or independent auditing or verification of any of its gold, especially the foreign held gold, these claims are impossible to verify.
This is not just a question of the sale of part of the gold reserves, but also where the gold really is. A really comic situation, you have something very valuable, you need money and you can not sell it because some politicians in the other country does not agree with that.
https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/italys-gold-enters-the-political-fray-but-who-really-owns-it/