 In 1945, after beating a German soldier with a bottle, he was interned in a mental hospital and remained there for three years.In 1948 he began painting more intensely, and journalists, critics and art dealers began to be interested in him.In 1957 Severo Boschi, a journalist at the "Il Resto del Carlino" newspaper, and photographer Aldo Ferrari went to Gualtieri to meet him.