Italy came in for ridicule on Tuesday after its officials covered up ancient nude statues in Rome’s Capitoline Museums to avoid offending visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, AP reported. Wooden panels were erected around some of the statues on Monday ahead of a news conference in which Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Rouhani were to make a joint address.

Renzi's office wanted the statues along Rouhani’s path to the conference covered up, the museum said on Tuesday. The two leaders finally spoke in a room that featured the fully-clothed bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

The move drew widespread criticism from politicians in the country. While the leader of right-wing Brothers of Italy party Giorgia Meloni deemed it “cultural submission”, left-wing politician of the SEL party Gianluca Peciola called the act “a shame and mortification for art and culture understood as universal concepts”. He added that he will file a petition demanding an explanation for Renzi’s decision.