Sarfatti had an influence over Mussolini's policies from 1922 until 1938, when Mussolini bowed to German pressure and after the Manifesto of Race enacted a racial legislation, the fascist government's politics were not anti-semitic, and the party's membership rolls were open to Jews. Probably in reaction to the changing circumstances in Italy, Sarfatti left Italy in 1938 for Argentina and Uruguay; she worked as a journalist for the newspaper "El Diario" of Montevideo. After the war, in 1947, Sarfatti returned to her home country and once again became an influential force in Italian art.