Still no buyer for villa in Italy with Caravaggio mural
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi looks at Caravaggio's "Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto", at the villa in Rome.
PHOTO: AFP
ROME (AFP) - A Roman villa housing the only mural by Caravaggio failed to sell for a second time on Thursday (April 7), the lawyer charged with the sale told AFP.
"Nobody turned up to the auction," Antonella Scano said, adding that they would try again on June 30, with the price tag further reduced.
Villa Aurora, long the seat of the noble Ludovisi Boncompagni family, is being put up for sale following a bitter dispute among its heirs.
It was originally valued at €471 million (S$700 million) - a cool €350 million of which are for the Caravaggio alone.
It is the only mural the Baroque master of chiaroscuro ever painted. It depicts Roman gods Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, along with the signs of the zodiac in the centre.
But the 2,800 sqm residence failed to attract any bids at an auction in January and the price was dropped by 20 per cent.
It will now go down another 20 per cent, to €301 million.
Located near Rome's Piazza di Spagna, the villa is currently home to Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi, the Texas-born widow of Prince Nicolo Ludovisi Boncompagni.
It is up for sale after a fallout with her late husband's children from his first marriage.
