“I come from another time, different from this one,” Ira von Fürstenberg often said, and if you look closely at her photos, perhaps she came from another planet: Avedon portrayed her as a fifteen-year-old, surrounded by flowers like a Pre-Raphaelite He and Nymph also photographed her between the roses. Beaton reminded her of a more “elegant” Ava Gardner, while in Slim Arons' portrait we see her as an adult in an orange bikini in Marbella.
Actress, model, paparazzi-covered dominatrix of newsreels and magazines, designer of art objects and jewels that she resold at high prices to the countless contacts in her diary of the rich and famous, PR representative for her boyfriend Valentino, Karl's muse Lagerfeld: She had many lives, all extraordinary, none of them boring or banal, because she didn't know how to be boring or banal. Princess Virginia Carolina Theresa Pancrazia Galdina zu Fürstenberg, born on April 17, 1940 in Rome from the Austro-Hungarian Prince Tassilo Fürstenberg, descendant of Charlemagne and Clara Agnelli, sister of the lawyer, grew up between London, Venice, Cortina, Forte dei Marmi and Salzburg , lived for a time throughout the towns of what was once (now defunct) called the “jet set,” and died yesterday at the age of 83.
The scandals
With scandals in her DNA – her mother ran away with Count Nuvoletti, which was a crime at the time – and not at all tamed by her stay at boarding school in England, Ira von Fürstenberg had two marriages, neither of which were happy: the first at fifteen with Alfonso di Hohenlohe-Langenburg with his slicked-back hair and Errol Flynn-style mustache (who gave birth to Christoph, known as Kiko, who died in Bangkok in 2006 at the age of forty-nine after a complicated life in prison died , and Hubertus, a skier, photographer and singer), the scandalous wedding of the child bride, which brought four of them into difficult families, four aristocratic Catholic families linked to big industry and months of feverish consultations also with the Vatican about the indispensable Pope led dispensation; the second at twenty, with the playboy baby Pignatari. “I married – he swore in his petition to the Holy Rota for an annulment – because they forced me to do so, under the threat of sending me to a monastery.” “He married early then,” she said pragmatically six years ago in an interview with Valerio Cappelli in Corriere, where she also admitted that “cinema was my disease”.
Films
28 films, some good (Matchless, Capriccio all'italiana, Prof. Dr. Guido Tersilli, head doctor of the health insured Villa Celeste clinic with Alberto Sordi, who wooed her in vain), others much less, some not at all And in fact she is one of those Titles that he peacefully forgot when he left the cinema in the mid-seventies and celebrated because he could put an end to the diets and devote himself to his passion, sweets, with more peace of mind.
For the mythological Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, she was one of the most beautiful women in the world, Salvador Dalí tried in vain to portray her naked (“My husband doesn't want to”), he presented the Sanremo Festival (1970, with Enrico Maria Salerno) hypnotized her Hollywood stars – Frank Sinatra, Gary Cooper – and Prince Rainier of Monaco at the parties, which, when not officially held in his honor, usually dominated. After Grace Kelly's death, the magazines guaranteed that Rainier's new wife would be her, and her best friend, Princess Margaret, broke off with the memorable comment, “Such a great girl for such a small place?”, and nothing happened. Kiko's death (“They killed me,” he said, pointing the finger at the terrible conditions of prisoners in the prison where he was held for forging his residence visa) was the great pain of a lifetime.
The boyfriend
Five years ago, Nick Foulkes dedicated a large photo book to her, a diary about her many lives (Ira: The Life and Times of a Princess) and her art collection (Liechtenstein, Dubuffet, Ernst, Albers, Klein). Of all the friends he was with, he remembered with particular affection one who had just died, an award for bravery that would not have displeased Emperor Karl Lagerfeld.