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Image copyrightReuters
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Villa Aurora is at the center of the row between Princess Rita Jenrette and her ex-husband’s children.
An American-born princess was evicted from a villa in Rome that houses the only ceiling painting by the artist Caravaggio.
Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi called her eviction from Villa Aurora a “farce”.
The property was at the center of an inheritance dispute between Princess Rita and the children of her husband, who died in 2018.
As part of the family estate, it was auctioned for $517 million, but there were no bids.
The princess said she was being “brutally” evicted from a home she had “cared for with love for the last 20 years”, adding that the eviction was “illegal” and “unnecessary”.
“Someone said it’s because I’m female and American, I don’t know,” she added, before adding it “Of course it’s all about the money”.
The eviction notice was issued in January by a court in Rome, which said the princess had failed to maintain the building after an outer wall collapsed. He also pointed out that he had broken an earlier order that banned him from offering paid tours of the mansion.
The princess told Portal in January that she arranged the visits to raise money for upkeep.
Image copyrightAlamy
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Caravaggio’s mural shows Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto.
family conflict
The legal battle began after the Italian prince’s death in 2018 Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisia descendant of Pope Gregory XIII, the head of the family that owned Villa Aurora for generations.
Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi argues with Prince Nicolò’s three children from her first marriage.
She has argued that her late husband’s will gives her the right to live at Villa Aurora for the rest of her life and that in the event of a sale, the proceeds will be split between her and her stepchildren.
However, no agreement could be reached between the parties and a court ruled that an auction should take place. The princess explains that she wants the mansion to belong to the state.
The highlight of the many treasures in the six-story villa is the painting by the 16th-17th century artist Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio.
The oil painting depicts the gods Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto with the world at the center and marked by the signs of the zodiac. The artist is said to have painted the gods to resemble him.
Is the only surviving Caravaggio mural in the world, and is valued at $340 million. It was painted in 1597 after the villa’s first owner commissioned it for his alchemy room.
Surprisingly, the painting was not discovered until the late 1960s before it was covered.
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“Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto”, the only fresco by Caravaggio.
However, Villa Aurora got its name from another artwork on the property, a fresco by Italian Baroque artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino. The painting depicts the goddess Aurora in her chariot.
Art lovers are demanding that the Italian government buy the villa so its many treasures can be opened to the public.
Princess Rita, born Rita Carpenter in Texas in 1949, worked as an actress and journalist in the United States before entering the real estate industry.
After marrying Prince Nicolò in 2009 and moving to Italy, she devoted her life to restoring Villa Aurora, which was derelict when she first saw it in 2003, she argues.
The Ville
From 1622 to 1886 the Ludovisi and then the Boncompagni Ludovisi created and maintained the largest (in its final form 36 hectares) and most magnificent private residence within the walls of Rome: the Villa Ludovisi.
It was a vast complex of gardens and buildings created on land acquired by the powerful Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi in 1621, where the connoisseur and patron of the arts housed a famous collection of antiques.
The Casino of Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi, known as Villa Aurora or Casino dell’Aurora, is the last vestige of this famous villa.
It had been built in 1570 as a hunting lodge, and Caravaggio was commissioned in 1597 by its previous owner, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, to decorate the ceiling of his alchemy laboratory.
The artist painted with oils on 2.75 meter wide plaster a scene in which the gods Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto appear, representing the three elements that Del Monte used in his alchemical experiments: air, water and fire.
Jupiter appears to move a translucent orb patterned with the signs of the zodiac and the earth and sun below.
The mythological work was covered up and only rediscovered in 1968 during renovation work.
Later, the new owner, Cardinal Ludovisi, commissioned Carlo Maderno – one of the fathers of Baroque architecture – to rebuild the building, leaving Guercino to use one of the ground floor ceilings as a canvas.
Image copyrightGetty Images
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Detail of the fresco “Aurora” by Guercino.
In vivid tones of blue and red, the Baroque artist painted the goddess of the dawn, Aurora, soaring across the sky in her chariot, hurling flowers as she ushered in the sunlight.
His fresco gave the villa its name.
As if that wasn’t enough, there are frescoes by Flemish painter Paul Bril, as well as Italians Giovanni Battista Viola, Domenichino, Giovanni Valesio and Antonio Circignani, known as il Pomarancio.
Apart from what’s on the walls There is a dizzying array of historical itemsincluding tens of thousands of valuable documents, including letters from the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette.
Image copyrightGetty Images
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The ceiling of the room of the countries, with the side walls painted by Guercino, Paul Bril, Domenichino, Gian Battista Viola.
According to records, in the 1620s Galileo was making astronomical observations from his rooftop loggias, from which the British-American writer Henry James, three centuries later, would enjoy the panoramic view of the Eternal City “against a sky-faded sapphire,” he recounted in his memoir “Italian Hours” (1909).
James wasn’t the only literary giant to visit; before it fell apart with its lush gardens, fountains and statues, Villa Ludovisi For centuries it was a mandatory stop for wealthy artists, writers, musicians and travelers.
Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, Frenchman Stendhal – who wrote of strolling “with delight among the great avenues of green trees” – and German Goethe – who liked a statue of the goddess Juno so much that he had it copied – passed through. .. for your home in Germany.
In the 1880’s much of the property was sold and Via Veneto and its environs were built on it, one of the most glamorous shopping districts in the world.
The family’s main palace, Palazzo Margherita, eventually became the US Embassy.
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The sculpture of the god Pan created by Michelangelo in the garden.
What remained of all this cultural wealth – Villa Aurora – was inherited by Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, born in 1941.
prince
His Highness was the head of one of the oldest and most respected noble families in Italy: eleventh great-grandson of Papa Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572-1585), who introduced the Gregorian calendar, and tenth great-grandson of Papa Gregory XV Ludovisi (1621-1623), who established the modern system of papal elections.
The Boncompagni Ludovisi have numerous leading figures in the Catholic Church, European and Italian politics, science and art.
For two and a half centuries the family also maintained one of the largest and most important collections of ancient sculpture ever assembled.
Prince Nicolò studied chemical engineering in Switzerland, spoke seven languages and had many interests.
Among other things, he developed the world’s largest tuff quarry in Riano north of Rome and was involved in the purchase and restoration of historic properties in the city of Rome.
But he only started restoring Villa Aurora after meeting his third wife, Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi.
Image copyrightGetty Images
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Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi in front of a portrait of herself with her husband.
The princess
In January 2003, Rita Jenrette, then a real estate agent in Manhattan, flew to Rome with a client interested in building a hotel on one of the prince’s properties on the outskirts of the Italian capital.
The real estate business was the latest turn in the varied and colorful career of this Texan, who has worked as a researcher for the Republican Party and the US Congress, among other things Country singer, model, actress, author of two books – one of which was her best-selling memoir – and journalist for Fox Network.
She was also the wife of John W. Jenrette Jr., a South Carolina Democrat who was among members of Congress jailed for taking bribes in the FBI’s Abscam operation in the 1980s.
Amid this scandal, she posed nude for Playboy magazine and, in the interview that accompanied the photos, revealed details of an occasion when she and her husband met during a break from a session of the House of Representatives, which caused widespread uproar.
Rita divorced Jenrette and embarked on a successful career in real estate. The year she met Prince Nicolò, she was completing an executive management program at Harvard Business School.
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The day of the wedding in 2009.
Love
Judging from what they both say in a video produced in memory of Prince Nicolò, It was love at first sight.
“It took my breath away…I couldn’t describe it any other way,” the prince said at the time. “I was struck by her intelligence and her beauty…everything.”
“I called my best friend,” Princess Rita said in turn.
“I said, ‘I know that sounds crazy.’ I’ve had a six- and seven-figure career in New York. ‘But this guy touched me. He’s so wonderful.'”
Rita moved to Rome and in the same year fell in love with something else: Villa Aurora.
At that point it was a ruin, so he convinced the prince to restore it.
After years of negotiations with the Italian government, which declared the house a national treasure, work finally began in 2009 to reverse the effects of years of neglect.
The water had damaged everything from the frescoes to the ancient statues in the garden, some of which dated little pink, dating back to 500 BC.
Image copyrightGetty Images
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Carelessness wreaked havoc and there is still much to recover.
The couple moved into the headquarters of Boncompagni Ludovisi.
In addition to the restoration, the princes digitized the archives and opened the house to a public who never had the opportunity to see the treasures housed within.
The princess herself served as the guide on the tours.
But in March 2018 Prince Nicolò died.
And the fight for the inheritance began, which led to the “expulsion of the princess” and no end is to be expected.
Image copyrightGetty Images
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