MILAN (Reuters) – The body of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be cremated and his ashes taken to the family mausoleum in the grounds of his villa in the northern town of Arcore, a source close to the family told Reuters.
After a state funeral on Wednesday, the coffin will be returned to Villa San Martino, near Milan, to await the cremation which will take place at the Valenziano Panta Rei Crematorium Temple, near the city of Alessandria.
Berlusconi, who died on Monday at the age of 86, hired sculptor Pietro Cascella to build the mausoleum in the early 1990s.
Berlusconi originally built it to bury himself, his family members and friends, but then found out the law only allows bodies to be buried in public cemeteries, his long-time friend and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi told AdnKronos news agency. Ashes can be placed in the mausoleum however.
Italian media described it as a white marble structure with an underground mortuary. A sarcophagus made for Berlusconi stands at the centre and a frieze representing chains is carved on the walls, with the tied rings seen as a symbol of family union.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, writing by Cristina Carlevaro and Angelo Amante; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)