Villa with Caravaggio’s only ceiling mural goes up for sale for $ 547 million| Today Headlines
Villa with Caravaggio’s only ceiling mural goes up for sale for $ 547 million
| Today Headlines | abc News
A few steps from Via Veneto, the emblematic street commemorated by Federico Fellini, director of “La Dolce Vita”, Villa Aurora is flanked by a garden and various garages, and covers a total of 2,800 square meters. (just over half an acre), according to public sale documents released by the Department of Justice.
The six-story property is home to a myriad of works of art, including an oil mural attributed to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, better known simply as Caravaggio, whose work has become synonymous with visceral depictions of the artist’s violence.
Portrait of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 17th century. Found in the collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Credit: Heritage Images / Hulton Fine Art Collection / Getty Images
Spanning the ceiling of a small 2.75 square meter (about 30 square feet) room, Caravaggio’s Villa Aurora mural depicts three gods – Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto – as they gather around of a translucent globe.
It was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte in 1597, who would have used the room as an alchemical laboratory, according to the court-ordered expertise published by the ministry.
The painting has an estimated value of over 310 million euros ($ 360 million), according to Alessandro Zuccari, professor of modern art history at Sapienza University in Rome.
Zuccari, who was called by the court to estimate the artwork inside the property, concluded in his court-ordered appraisal that Caravaggio’s painting is “priceless, being the only mural in the property. ‘one of the greatest painters of modern times’.
The villa is also decorated with frescoes by the Baroque painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino, who worked in the villa between 1621 and 1623. Among the works of Guercino are the fresco of Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, which was painted for the nephew of Pope Gregory XV, Alessandro Ludovisi.
Aurora, 1621, by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino, fresco. Casino of Villa Ludovisi, Rome. Credit: DeAgostini / Getty Images
Villa Aurora belongs to the Boncompagni Ludovisi family, descendant of Pope Gregory XV. However, no details of the legal reasons behind the auction have been disclosed.
But maintaining the property won’t come cheap. One of the conditions for whoever buys the property will be spending 11 million euros on restoration expenses.
As a protected art site, the State will have the right of first refusal over the villa.
The Fallco Zucchetti auction company manages the sale.
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