Pallade Veneta - Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida dies: minister

"Farewell to a diva of the silver screen, protagonist of more than half a century of Italian cinema history. Her charm will remain eternal," Sangiuliano wrote after Italy's ANSA news agency reported her death.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also paid tribute to Lollobrigida, famed when younger for her biting wit and sensual beauty, describing the actor as a "great talent, passionate, intense, enthralling".

She was "one of the most important performers of her generation, who contributed to the diffusion of the Italian image in the world", Meloni said in a statement.

Lollobrigida had undergone an operation in a Rome clinic in September after breaking her femur, ANSA reported.

Her funeral will be held on Thursday in one of the churches in Piazza del Popolo in Rome, it said.

Best known for Luigi Comencini's 1953 classic "Bread, Love and Dreams", and Jean Delannoy's 1956 "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", Lollobrigida starred with many of the leading men of the time, including Errol Flynn, Burt Lancaster and Humphrey Bogart.

Born on July 4, 1927, in Subiaco, a mountain village 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Rome, her big breakthrough came in 1953 starring alongside Bogart in John Huston's romp "Beat the Devil".

Bogart said at the time Lollobrigida made "Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple".

Lollobrigida won seven David di Donatello awards during her career, Italy's Oscar equivalent.

But by the 1970s she had turned from acting to sculpture and photojournalism, including getting a scoop interview and photo shoot with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

She was back in the spotlight in 2021, amid a bitter legal battle with her son over her fortune.

Italy's Supreme Court ruled that she needed a legal guardian to stop people preying on her wealth, because of a "weakening" in her perception of reality.

M.Jacobucci--PV