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December 2, 2021

Rome villa restored by Texas princess up for auction

  • The home, with an over 400-year-old Caravaggio ceiling painting, is expected to fetch at least $400 million.
    • By FRANCESCO SPORTELLI and NICOLE WINFIELD
    Associated Press

    ROME — A villa in the heart of Rome that features the only known ceiling painted by Caravaggio is being put up for auction by court order after the home was restored by its last occupants: a Texas-born princess and her late husband, a member of one of Rome's aristocratic families.

    The Casino dell'Aurora, also known as Villa Ludovisi, was built in 1570 and 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, Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi.


     
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