A villa in Rome could become one of the most expensive properties of all time if, as expected, it is auctioned for around 500 million euros.
The auction will start on January 18th with an opening bid of 471 million euros, reports the British Daily Mail.
The reason for the top price: The Casino di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi, also known as Villa Aurora, houses the only ceiling painting by Caravaggio. The 2.75 meter wide painting by the Italian baroque master entitled “Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto” alone is estimated at 310 million euros.
Caravaggio (1571–1610) created the work of art in the alchemy laboratory of this former hunting lodge around 1597. The legendary Italian painter of the early Baroque era became famous above all for the strong light-dark contrasts in his paintings: this makes the figures and scenes look almost eerie realistic.
Detail from Caravaggio’s unique ceiling fresco in Villa AuroraPhoto: Minor Sights
One of the art experts who examined the ceiling painting of Villa Aurora explained the difficulty: It was the only mural that Caravaggio had ever painted – the experts therefore had nothing to compare. That alone is extraordinary. But it can also be assumed that the three gods depicted are modeled on the face of the artist himself.
Caravaggio’s contemporary Guercino also immortalized himself in the Villa Aurora with wall paintings. According to the art expert, other rooms in the property are also spectacular, but the most important are the two with the works of Caravaggio and Guercino – “unique”.
The villa is just a stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps and the Borghese Gardens. It was part of a country estate built in the 16th century by Cardinal Francesco Maria Bourbon Del Monte. The cardinal sold it in 1621 to the noble Ludovisi family, who were close to the papacy and who still own the house to this day. The upcoming sale comes after a protracted inheritance dispute following the death of the owner Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi in 2018.
A view of the country estate with the Villa Aurora from the 18th centuryPhoto: De Agostini via Getty Images
The state has a right of first refusal
Once a bid is accepted at the auction, the Italian state has the option of buying the property for the same price because it is under the protection of the Ministry of Culture.
But whoever owns it in the end will have to spend an estimated eleven million euros on the restoration.
If Villa Aurora were to sell for half a billion euros, it would be one of the most expensive.
Dizzying real estate prices
According to the auction house Christie’s, the most expensive residential property according to publicly reported sales was the Ho Tung garden in Hong Kong, which cost around 566 million euros, according to the Daily Mail. But it is not a single residential building: Ho Tung Garden was sold as a piece of land.
But it can be even more dizzying! After Buckingham Palace in London (value: allegedly up to six billion euros), the Antilia in Mumbai, India, is considered to be the most expensive private house in the world. The construction of the 27-story house in 2010 is said to have cost more than 750 million euros, now it is said to be worth around one billion euros.