Dhe material, which is keeping the Italian art world, the press and Dario Franceschini’s Ministry of Culture in suspense these days, would offer good series motifs for a family drama in upper Roman circles. The protagonists: a baroque villa in one of the most elegant districts of Rome, a ceiling painting by Caravaggio that is almost unknown to the general public, a Texan-Roman princess with a scandal-ridden past – and a quarreling community of heirs of noble sons from a first marriage, whose squabbling over their father’s property ended on 18th August 1940. January should be put to an end with a court-ordered auction. It is about the Casino dell’Aurora, also known as Villa Ludovisi, located between Via Vittorio Veneto, Porta Pinciana and Villa Borghese. There is talk of a “century auction”. The superlative seems justified.
The court in Rome has set an auction value of a whopping 471 million euros and a starting bid of 353 million. In fact, the 16th-century villa, owned by the Ludovisi family for four hundred years, is a casket full of treasures. In the main foyer, a fresco of the goddess Aurora by Guercino, from which the villa takes its name, greets those entering. Another room is decorated with natural scenes by Domenichino, Paul Bril, Giovanni Battista Viola and Guglielmo Viola. But the most important work is on the first floor, in a room that used to be called the “Alchemist’s Cabinet”. There, next to a narrow spiral staircase, is the only known ceiling painting by Caravaggio. The 2.75 meter wide picture shows Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune with the globe in the middle. The work alone, believed to have been made in 1597, is estimated at over $310 million. Guercino’s vault painting is said to be worth 37 million. In addition, countless other works of art such as sculptures, paintings, plasterwork, statues and columns belong to the 6000 square meter property as well as a park designed by André Le Nôtre, the garden architect of Versailles.
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