Once, twice, sold? Rome villa with Caravaggio up for auction

ROME — A villa in Rome containing the only known ceiling painted by Caravaggio went on a court-ordered auction block Tuesday, thanks to an inheritance dispute pitting the heirs of one of Rome’s aristocratic families against their stepmother, a Texas-born princess.

Princess Rita Jenrett Boncompagni Ludovisi, formerly known as Rita Carpenter of San Antonio, woke up Tuesday in the Casa dell’Aurora surrounded by her dogs on what might be the last day that her home of nearly two decades is actually hers.

An online auction organized by the Rome tribunal began at 3 p.m. sharp. The starting bid was set at 353 million euros ($400 million), and the villa just off the famous Via Veneto was assigned a court-appraised value of 471 million euros ($533 million).

“It’s been emotional since I received the notice from the judge on Sept. 2. I’ve rarely slept,” Boncompagni Ludovisi told The Associated Press a few hours before the auction began. “It’s like going through the stages of death and dying. … You’re angry at first, and then you can’t believe it, and then you finally go into a point of accepting it.”

The house, built in 1570, has been in the Ludovisi family since the early 1600s. After Prince Nicolo Boncompagni Ludovisi died in 2018, the villa became the subject of an inheritance dispute between the children from his first marriage and his third wife, the San Antonio-born Princess Rita.

The villa, also known as Villa Ludovisi, is one of 42 lots up for court-ordered auction Tuesday. But Villa Aurora is by far the most prestigious and expensive, thanks in great part to the Caravaggio that graces a tiny room off a spiral staircase on the second floor.

It was commissioned in 1597 by a diplomat and patron of the arts who asked the then-young painter to decorate the ceiling of the small room being used as an alchemy workshop. The 2.75-meter (9-foot) wide mural, which depicts Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune, is unusual: It’s not a fresco, but rather oil on plaster, and represents the only ceiling mural that Caravaggio is known to have made.

“It’s probably the first work of Caravaggio’s that we know of, so historically, it’s a really a milestone,” said Claudio Strinati, an art historian and Caravaggio expert. “And then in and of itself, it’s a beautiful piece about a mythological theme, which is rare in Caravaggio’s art because he mostly dealt with sacred themes.”

“So it’s a painting of real artistic and historic importance, and of great beauty,” he said.

The listing on the Rome tribunal’s auction site highlights the Caravaggio among the home’s other attributes, but notes the villa will need an estimated 11 million euros ($12.5 million) in renovations to comply with current building standards.

The “monumental property” on six levels is “among the most prestigious architectural and landscape beauties of pre-unification Rome,” with three garages, two roof terraces and a “splendid garden with arboreal essences and tall trees, pedestrian paths, stairs and rest areas,” the listing states.

“I had always wanted to turn it into a museum, actually, but that’s not going to happen I presume,” Boncompagni Ludovisi said Tuesday as she took visitors on a tour of the home. “So my hope is that whomever buys it will treat it with the care and love that my husband and I did.”

With such an astronomical price tag, it’s quite possible that no one will bid on it. Boncompagni Ludovisi said would-be buyers had come to look at the property over the last several weeks. She is not allowed to reveal their identities, and the new owner – if one emerges – may not be known until a later date.

If no bids are made in the first round, the villa will go up for auction two more times at lower prices, Boncompagni Ludovisi said. The Italian Culture Ministry can try to match the highest bid at any stage given the property’s value as a part of Italy’s cultural heritage.

The American princess, who previously was married to former U.S. Rep. John Jenrette Jr. of South Carolina, married Boncompagni Ludovisi in 2009. At the time, the villa had fallen into disrepair, and her husband only used it as an office.

Together, they tried to renovate it as best they could, within their means. They opened the house up to visiting students and tour groups and hosted dinners to bring in revenue, and thanks to funding from Rutgers University, helped arrange for the digitization of the Boncompagni Ludovisi archives.

Boncompagni Ludovisi doesn’t know what will come next. If no buyer immediately steps forward, she has more time in the villa but assumes eventually she’ll have to move out. She’s looked at properties to rent or buy nearby, though she knows if she stays in Rome “I keep thinking, won’t it be painful to drive by here and see someone else living here?”

She hopes to meet the new owners, give them a tour and teach them some of its history in hopes that they’ll keep open the home open for the public to enjoy. She knows though that once it is sold, she’ll have no say over whether it becomes a 5-star hotel, an embassy or something else entirely.

“It was really such a privilege to live here. Such a great responsibility, but such a privilege and a journey of love to be here,” she said. “Even when all the pipes would burst.”