BREAKING NEWS
Villa Aurora is on the centre of a dispute between Princess Rita Jenrette and the sons of her ex-husband
A US-born “princess” has been evicted from a villa in Rome housing the finest ceiling mural by the artist Caravaggio.
Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi called her eviction from Villa Aurora a “travesty”.
The property has been on the centre of an inheritance dispute between Princess Rita and the sons of her ex-husband, who died in 2018.
As section of the row, it become beforehand build up for public sale for €471m (£394m), nonetheless attracted no bids.
In a video posted to social media, Princess Rita stated she become being “brutally evicted from a home which I in truth bear lovingly looked after for the previous twenty years,” together with that the pass become “illegal” and “pointless”.
“Any person stated or now now not this is because I’m a lady and I’m American – I make now now not know,” she stated, earlier than together with that it become “all about cash, clearly”.
The eviction look become issued in January by a Rome courtroom, which stated Princess Rita had did now not abet the constructing following the give blueprint of an exterior wall. It moreover stated she had violated a old explain forbidding her from giving paid tours of the mansion.
She advised Reuters news agency in January that the tours bear been organised to elevate cash for upkeep.
Image source, Alamy
Caravaggio’s mural depicts Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto
The comely combat began after the death in 2018 of Prince Nicolo Ludovisi Boncompagni, a descendant of Pope Gregory XIII, who become head of the family which has owned Villa Aurora for generations.
Princess Rita’s dispute is with Prince Nicolo’s three sons from his first marriage.
She has argued that her leisurely husband’s will presents her the lawful to reside in Villa Aurora for the remainder of her life, and that if provided, the proceeds would be split between her and her stepsons.
Nevertheless, an agreement couldn’t be reached between the parties and a courtroom dominated that an public sale have to be held. The princess says she would just like the villa to be owned by the instruct.
The highlight of the six-storey villa’s many treasures is the painting by the 16th and 17th Century artist Michelangelo Merisi, better is named Caravaggio.
The oil painting depicts the gods Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, with the sector at its centre and marked by indicators of the zodiac. The artist is imagined to bear painted the gods to examine love himself.
It is miles the sector’s only surviving Caravaggio mural, itself estimated to bear a fee of €310m (£259m). It become painted in 1597 after the villa’s first proprietor commissioned it for his alchemy room.
Remarkably, the painting become only found in the leisurely 1960s, earlier than which it had been covered up.
Nevertheless, Villa Aurora bought its name from one more of the property’s artworks, a fresco painted by the Italian Baroque artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, is named Guercino. The painting depicts the goddess Aurora, or Spoil of day, on her chariot.
Art-enthusiasts are disturbing that the Italian govt buys the villa so as that its many treasures can even be made on hand for public viewing.
Princess Rita, born as Rita Wood worker in Texas, worked as an actor and journalist in the USA, earlier than going in the property industry.
But after marrying Prince Nicolo and transferring to Italy, she devoted her life to the restoration of Villa Aurora, which become in a instruct of disrepair when she first seen it in 2003, she says.