Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has ordered that all nude sculptures on display at the Capitoline Museum should be covered up so as not to offend visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Greek classical sculptures as well as Roman masterpieces have been hidden in a bid to seal multi-billion agreements that Rouhani arrived in Rome on Monday to sign.

Statues were fenced around with white panels as a show of respect for the Islamic Republic that came bearing gifts worth $18.4 billion.

In modern history, Rome has covered its statues up for Adolf Hitler and more recently for the crown Abu Dhabi’s Prince Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who visited Florence. When Rohani visited Greece last week, no statues flaunting the body beautiful in antiquity were covered up.

The nude covering of statues is not where it ends. Renzi’s official dinner failed to provide wine or pork to guests. No doubt, Italy learnt from the mistakes of France where French President Francois Hollande failed to provide a halal and alcohol-free dinner for the Iranian delegation, citing “republican traditions”. This resulted in Rouhani’s rejection of the invitation to attend.

Twitter was abuzz with users objecting to Renzi’s move