Roberto Pinotti
Roberto Pinotti is an Italian journalist and ufologist, the founder and president of the Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN). A well-known figure in Italian UFO research, he is the main promoter of the disputed Gabinetto RS/33 and Magenta story.
Roberto Pinotti is an Italian ufologist, writer and columnist, one of the founders and the president of the Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN), established in 1966. The CUN is one of Italy's oldest UFO research organizations. Pinotti has been present in Italian and international ufology for decades, giving lectures and writing books on the subject.
Activities
Pinotti is known for his publications on UFO phenomena and his organizational work. The CUN collects and investigates reported sightings, according to its members with a scientific approach. Pinotti has also been involved in organizing international ufology conferences and frequently comments on the subject in the Italian media.
His best-known work is his treatment of the Gabinetto RS/33 legend. In 1996, together with Alfredo Lissoni, he began investigating the story of an alleged UFO crash near Magenta, Lombardy, in June 1933, after they received secret documents said to be authentic from an anonymous source. According to the source, a relative of theirs worked in the secret research group set up by Mussolini. Pinotti covered the story in several books, including UFO Italia: da Mussolini al Pentagono. The topic drew international attention in 2023, when former U.S. intelligence officer David Grusch named the 1933 case in Italy as the earliest crash he knew of.
What he claims
According to Pinotti, the UFO phenomenon deserves serious research, and some sightings cannot be explained by conventional natural or human-made causes. He supports official transparency on the subject and calls for the release of government data.
Official and skeptical view
Official bodies, including the Italian authorities, generally do not acknowledge that the sightings point to craft of alien origin. According to skeptics, the vast majority of reported cases are identifiable atmospheric, astronomical or air traffic phenomena, or misidentifications. Pinotti's documents on RS/33 are especially criticized because they all come from a single anonymous source, and no independent archive has confirmed their existence.